in the last weeks of march 2000, iceberg b-15 calved from the ross ice shelf near roosevelt island, antarctica. the calving occurred along pre-existing cracks in the ice shelf. the iceberg measured around long and wide, with a surface area of —nearly as large as the island of jamaica,(). scientists believe that the enormous piece of ice broke away as part of a long-term natural cycle, which occurs every fifty to one hundred years. in 2000, 2002, and 2003, iceberg b-15 broke up into several pieces, the largest of which, b-15a, covered of the sea surface.