--- title: Iceberg Antarctica: More Than Meets the Eye in This Photo description: The iceberg, which actually only extends six feet above sea level, appears larger than life canonical: https://time.com/4237218/iceberg-ship-photo/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-25T16:52:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:22:51.481Z article:section: Science og:title: Iceberg Antarctica: More Than Meets the Eye in This Photo og:description: The iceberg, which actually only extends six feet above sea level, appears larger than life og:url: https://time.com/4237218/iceberg-ship-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad5a17f2afe7e88/69887f26e20a87b716a8fb75/icberg-tiny-ship-optical-illusion.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: An iceberg appears to dwarf a 3,000 tonne ship in the Antarctic Peninsula in Feb. 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iceberg Antarctica: More Than Meets the Eye in This Photo twitter:description: The iceberg, which actually only extends six feet above sea level, appears larger than life twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad5a17f2afe7e88/69887f26e20a87b716a8fb75/icberg-tiny-ship-optical-illusion.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This 'Giant' Iceberg is Actually Shorter Than This Ship  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 25, 2016 4:52 PM UTC  An iceberg appears to dwarf a 3,000 tonne ship in the Antarctic Peninsula in Feb. 2016. An iceberg appears to dwarf a 3,000 tonne ship in the Antarctic Peninsula in Feb. 2016.Rick Du Boisson—Solent News/REX/Shutterstock  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 25, 2016 4:52 PM UTC It’s a stunning photo. A 3,300-ton ship appears like a two-story house next to a giant skyscraper of ice. But there’s more to the photo than meets the eye. The iceberg, which actually only extends six feet above sea level, appears larger than life because the photographer captured the image while only a few feet from the ice. The ship, on the other hand, is 600 feet away from the camera. Photographer Rick Du Boisson, a chemist, captured the image in [Antarctica’s](http://time.com/3872724/antarctica-ice-shelf-melting-ocean-rise/) Paradise Bay in February. “The icebergs in all their varied shapes are quite amazing,” he said. “The intensity of the blue color is quite incredible.” While this photo is a work of visual deception, some icebergs would dwarf even the largest sea vessels. The [world’s largest iceberg](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=552), known as B-15, is 170 miles long and 25 miles wide. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4237218/iceberg-ship-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4237218/iceberg-ship-photo/"},"headline":"This 'Giant' Iceberg is Actually Shorter Than This Ship","datePublished":"2016-02-25T16:52:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:22:51.481Z","description":"That's a 3,300-ton ship","url":"https://time.com/4237218/iceberg-ship-photo/","keywords":["antarctica"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad5a17f2afe7e88/69887f26e20a87b716a8fb75/icberg-tiny-ship-optical-illusion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdad5a17f2afe7e88/69887f26e20a87b716a8fb75/icberg-tiny-ship-optical-illusion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An iceberg appears to dwarf a 3,000 tonne ship in the Antarctic Peninsula in Feb. 2016.","caption":"An iceberg appears to dwarf a 3,000 tonne ship in the Antarctic Peninsula in Feb. 2016.","creditText":"Rick Du Boisson—Solent News/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/antarctica/","name":"antarctica"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4237218/iceberg-ship-photo/","name":"This 'Giant' Iceberg is Actually Shorter Than This Ship"}}]}] ```