The world ’s largest iceberg – A23a – continues to move along its collision course of action with the remote British island of South Georgia . If previous iceberg crashes are anything to go by , a protuberance with this frosty behemoth could be a catastrophe for their resident seals , penguin , and other wildlife .
A23a weigh almost one trillion tonnes and measures 3,900 square km ( 1,500 straight miles ) in size of it – twice as bounteous as Greater London . From top to bottom , it ’s around 400 meters ( 1,312 feet ) thick , around the superlative of the Empire State Building observation deck .
The floating ice city is currentlydrifting through the Southern Oceanaround Antarctica after being broken off , or “ calved , ” from Antarctica ’s Filchner – Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986 . It quickly became lodged on the seabed in the Weddell Sea , where it remained still for 30 years , before gentlystarting to move againa few year ago .
Scientists have been keep a snug eye on its movements . For several years , they’vespeculated that it could terminate upnear the sub - Antarctic island of South Georgia and some are now inquire what that collision might look like .
" crisphead lettuce are inherently dangerous . I would be extraordinarily glad if it just completely lack us , " Simon Wallace , ocean senior pilot of the South Georgia government watercraft Pharos , toldBBC News .
There ’s in force reason to be suspicious of obstinate icebergs . Back in 2016 , an iceberg measuring 100 square kilometers ( 39 substantial miles ) call B09B slam into Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay , Antarctica . The uninvited slab of iceblocked the local penguin ’s routetowards the sea ( and their food for thought source , fish ) , causing their population number to tank . Astudylater estimated that as many as 150,000 of the area ’s 160,000 penguins may have died as a result of the incident .
South Georgia sits within “ Iceberg Alley , ” a instinctive corridor in Antarctica that ’s filled with isolated icebergs that have been captured by the movement of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current . As a answer , the local ecosystem are accustomed to berg collisions and have developed a degree of resilience to the changes they bring .
" South Georgia seat in iceberg alley so impacts are to be expected for both fishery and wildlife , and both have a large capacitance to adapt , " explained Mark Belchier , a marine ecologist who advises the South Georgia governing , also verbalize to BBC News .
That said , crisphead lettuce have caused mayhem on the far - flung island before . When iceberg A38 grounded near South Georgia in 2004 , a significant act of penguin chicks and stamp pups were killed because the flash-frozen obstruction had disrupted their parents ’ foraging routes .
As the largest iceberg in the world , A23ahas the potential to be even more devastating . However , berg are notoriously crafty to auspicate and there ’s no severalise how the rest of this story tear apart out .
Whether it dodge South Georgia or grounds itself along the island , the issue will propose a rare opportunity for scientist to study the resilience of these remote ecosystems in the face of spectacular environmental change .
