The largest iceberg in the world seems to be due to the coast of a remote British island house of millions of penguins and seals that may threaten local wild animals, but also offer the opportunity to research such rare “Megabergs”.
Known as A23A, the massive ice plate – about the size of Rhode Island and almost a trillion tons – was reported to South Georgia months ago.
In the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Eisberg announced that the iceberg apparently surrounds the continental shelf, which surrounds South Georgia and is about 73 kilometers from the island itself.
It is still in the air whether A23A is over a longer period of time – and what effects it could have on the local wildlife.
“It will be interesting to see what will happen now,” said Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at Bas, on Tuesday.
The subantarctic island of South Georgia is a British territory in overseas that is north of the Antarctic and around 1,850 kilometers east of South America. It supports a tiny, non -permanent population of scientists and researchers, but is best known for its abundance of wild animals, including five million seals in four different types and 65 million birds in 30 different species. Among them are the wandering Albatross, the largest flying bird in the world and different types of penguins.
One of the researchers’ concerns is that the Eisberg block wildlife from their normal ways to feeding points and that they are forced to cover longer distances and to bring less food back to their boys.
However, Meijers noticed that Eisbergs store important micronutrients that are released when melting and can also shake nutrients that settle in deep water, which may benefit the local ecosystem.
If this “high -towering wall” of ice stimulates ocean productivity, it could “increase the populations of local predators such as seals and penguins,” he said.
40-year trip
Running is the latest development in the dramatic 40-year lifespan of this ice giant.
A23a dropped out of the Filchner ice rink of the Antarctic in 1986, but remained on the sea floor in the Weddell Sea for the next three decades.
After A23A broke freely in 2020 and drove sea currents to the north at the top of the Antarctic Peninsula, he met another catch: an oceanic vertebrae called Taylor column, which turned them on the spot for months.
Since A23A pulled out of the vertebrae, it is slowly going towards South Georgia.
The government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands said In a statement In January that the progress of A23A had “monitored” and that shipping and fishing are localized and temporary during the effects on the animal world. “
Satellite images showed that the iceberg approached the continental shelf at the end of February before it seemed to be opened without any major movement since March 1st.
What could happen
Donavan Tremblay, an ice cream specialist at the Canadian coast guard, told CBC News that it was “very possible” that A23A was back in motion, as it was overstalling near the island that could shake or break.
But “it could stay there for a while,” he said.
Although icebergs of this size are relatively rare, this is not the first time that a Megaberg threatened South Georgia. In 2020, an iceberg called A68a – previously the world’s largest and the sixth largest iceberg of all time – separated near the island after he had had an impact on the shelf.
A study of 2022 showed that A68A released 152 gigatonnes fresh water and nutrients near South Georgia. This changed the salt concentration of the surface water sufficiently so that the effect after a separate study of 2023 could survive more than two months after the iceberg melted.
Scientists still agree with the effects that this had on the local ecosystem – including on whales, seals and plankton levels – and A23A.
A focus that highlighted Meijers is how the release of nutrients could help generate phytoplankton flowers and possibly increase the ability of the ocean to capture more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Other scientists want to know what has happened under A23a, which triggered huge scars into the sea floor and possibly triggered under water landslide, says Alex Norlandeau, a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada.
“What are the consequences for marine geology?” he asked. “Because it affects the existing habitats where the iceberg is grounded, but also affects the sediment suspension and underwater processes.”
Eisbergs, which divide and drive north by antarctic ice sheets and north, is a regular part of the life cycle of ice in Antarctic, but Meijers says that data has lost more mass in the past 20 years – a development scientist attributes to climate change.
“These are urgent and active research areas at BAS and elsewhere,” he said.
