[1] Mertz's body likely remains in the glacier that bears his name, a few miles closer to the Southern Ocean than when he was buried in the ice by Mawson.
[3] The separation occurred around the 12 or 13 February along two existing rift lines on opposite sides of the Tongue.
The iceberg is 400 metres (1,300 ft) high, has a surface area of 2,545 square kilometres (983 sq mi)[7] and weights in at about 860 billion tonnes.
[9] The iceberg drifted westwards after the collision and in April 2010 hit a submerged peak which caused it to break into two pieces.
[12][13] A 641 ha site on fast ice near the northern, or terminal, edge of the glacier toe has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a colony of emperor penguins.