(Image credit: Samuel J. Coe/Getty Images)
After months of drifting, the world's largest iceberg, A23a, has come to rest off the remote British island of South Georgia, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said on Tuesday (March 4).
A mega iceberg the size of Rhode Island has run aground 50 miles (80 kilometers) from a South Atlantic wildlife refuge, and researchers are closely monitoring its next moves, according to the BBC.
“Over the past few decades, many icebergs that have followed these routes through the Southern Ocean have been rapidly breaking up, dispersing and melting,” said Andrew Meyers, a BAS oceanographer, in a statement. “It will be interesting to see what happens now.”
Iceberg A23a, nicknamed the “queen of icebergs,” first broke away from Antarctica's Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. However, it remained attached to the seafloor for more than 30 years before it began to break away in 2020, according to BAS.
In 2024, the ice giant became stuck again, spinning in one place for several months north of the South Orkney Islands. However, in December 2024, it broke free again and continued its journey north.
When A23a's course toward South Georgia became apparent in January, experts feared a collision could have devastating consequences for the large colonies of penguins, seals and other marine animals living in the area.
If the mega-iceberg remains in place, Meyers said, it likely won’t pose a significant threat to local wildlife. However, if it gets too close to the island or breaks up, “it could disrupt their access to feeding areas and force adults to expend more energy traversing it,” he explained. “That could reduce the amount of food that’s returned to the pups and chicks on the island, and thus lead to increased mortality.”
Similar concerns were raised in 2020 when the world's previous largest iceberg, A68a, came dangerously close to the coast of South Georgia before eventually being broken into many smaller pieces by ocean currents.
However, the recent iceberg grounding may have a positive aspect: “If the iceberg contributes to ocean productivity, it may actually lead to an increase in the numbers of local predators, such as seals and penguins,” Meyers noted.
Mega icebergs not only lift nutrients from the ocean floor, they also contain huge amounts of nutrients locked up in their ice. “It’s like dropping a nutrient bomb in the middle of an empty desert,” Nadine Johnston, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, told the BBC.
However, Meyers added that as the iceberg breaks up, it could pose a danger to local mariners and fishermen. “Commercial fishing has had problems in the past, and as the iceberg breaks up into smaller pieces, it could make fishing operations in the area more difficult and potentially dangerous.”
BAS will continue to monitor the impact of this iceberg on the surrounding ecosystem.
TOPICS wildlife
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