For three decades it was a static "ice island".

Born in a mass breakout of bergs from the Filchner Ice Shelf, in the southern Weddell Sea, A23a was almost immediately stuck in shallow bottom muds to become an "ice island" for more than three decades.

A23a, as it's called, calved from the Antarctic coastline in 1986, but almost immediately grounded in the Weddell Sea to become, essentially, an ice island.

The giant floating ice island, which is only about 200 metres thick, could break apart or run aground.

By 3 August, this berg, or "ice island", had itself ruptured in two, with both segments then seen to drift out into the Arctic Ocean.