The iceberg is about the size of Singapore

A large iceberg has just separated from Antarctica and is being monitored based on currents and winds, to avoid breaking international sea routes.

>>>Finding the "giant" iceberg in Antarctica

This giant ice sheet took 2 years to separate from the Pine Island glacier due to a giant crack discovered by NASA's IceBridge program in October 2011.

The 720km ² ice sheet, equivalent to the Singapore island area, was discovered by TerraSAR-X satellite, an Earth observation satellite of the German Space Agency (DLR).

NASA satellite imagery shows a huge amount of water that has split the ice sheet with the Pine Island glacier.(Photo: NASA)

According to scientists, strong winds along with warming in the southern hemisphere have boosted the separation of ice sheets from the continent. Grant Bigg, an oceanographer at Sheffield University in the UK, told LiveScience the latest satellite images show that the distance between the iceberg and the glacier has reached several kilometers.

This massive ice block is expected to be less dangerous when moving from the West of Antarctica to the Drake Strait, near Cape Cape's nose of South America.

Grant Bigg has just received an aid with the aim of tracking icebergs to avoid breaking international sea routes. He and his colleagues have a program to predict the path of icebergs based on currents and winds.

Giant icebergs from the Pine Island glacier often break into pieces. Grant Bigg added that monitoring and forecasting large ice sheets would benefit the shipping industry, especially large vessels that often use regional waters.

There are a few small pieces of ice that have separated on the west side of the giant iceberg as it moves over the past few days.