The world ’s largest and old berg has “ set sheet ” upon a new voyage across Antarctica ’s Southern Ocean .
know as A23a , the megaberg weighs almost one trillion t and mensurate 3,900 square km ( 1,500 solid stat mi ) in size of it – that ’s doubly as big as Greater London . From top to bottom , it ’s around 400 cadence ( 1,312 pes ) thick , around the acme of the Empire State Building observation deck .
The urban center - sized chunk of ice was dampen off , or “ calved , ” from Antarctica ’s Filchner – Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986 . It then became lodged on the seabed in the Weddell Sea for over 30 years before gentlystarting to move againin 2020 . At the commencement of 2024 , it enter its“spinning era”and began aimlessly rotate 15 ° every single day .
A pod of orca pays a visit to A23a.Image credit: BAS
According to a new announcement from the British Antarctic Survey , A23a is back on the move across the Southern Ocean aroundAntarctica .
It is look that the prodigious iceberg will continue its journey following the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and cease up near the sub - Antarctic island of South Georgia . Here , it will be introduced to tender waters , have the iceberg to fail up into smaller berg that will finally mellow out away .
“ It ’s exciting to see A23a on the move again after periods of being stuck . We are interested to see if it will take the same route the other big icebergs that have calved off Antarctica have take . And more importantly what impingement this will have on the local ecosystem , ” Dr Andrew Meijers , an oceanographer at British Antarctic Survey who co - lead the OCEAN : ice rink project , said in astatement .
Scientists are already closely expect at how A23a is impacting the environment it ’s drift through . tardily last year , the RRS Sir David Attenborough ship documented the berg and collected samples from the tight coming upon to understand its future trajectory and possible impingement .
“ We bed that these elephantine icebergs can provide nutrients to the waters they perish through , creating palmy ecosystem in otherwise less productive area . What we do n’t know is what difference exceptional icebergs , their scale , and their origins can make to that process , ” comment Laura Taylor , a biogeochemist who run on the the BIOPOLE task onboard RRS Sir David Attenborough .
" We took samples of ocean surface waters behind , immediately adjacent to , and ahead of the iceberg ’s route . They should help us determine what life could make around A23a and how it bear upon carbon in the ocean and its balance with the atmosphere , ” tot Taylor .
