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Ice at Large
Icebergs are the frosty residents of Earth's enormous oceans. These pieces of glaciers float as they please and are the result of a fascinating - and occasionally dangerous - natural phenomenon.

Perhaps the most famous incident occurred in 1912 when the famed ship, the Titanic - the "unsinkable" vessel built as a show of human know-how - ran into an iceberg and sank.

The term "iceberg" has become part of are daily speech as one often hears the phrase: "the tip of the iceberg", which refers to the fact that as much as seven-eighths of the iceberg's mass is under water, leaving only a small portion exposed.

The destructive power of these colossal chunks of ice has prompted humans to set up monitoring systems - such as satellite surveillance - to prevent collisions.

Icebergs generally arise from the "calving" of glaciers, in which a large piece breaks off and is cast adrift in the oceans, particularly in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

The largest iceberg was discovered in March 2000. Dubbed B15, it measures nearly 300 km in length.

The Internet is home to numerous websites featuring information and photos of icebergs. Find out why these giants are comprised of freshwater in spite of the fact that they are found floating in the saltwater of the planet's oceans

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