British Antarctic Survey
The mission to determine the impact of the giant A-68a iceberg on the important marine ecosystem of sub-Antarctic South Georgia is a success according to a team of researchers and engineers, from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and National Oceanography Centre (NOC). This week (Monday 19 April) the U.S National Ice Center declared ‘the end’ of the A68 iceberg, because its fragments are now too small to track. This coincides with the return of the mission ship to Southampton in the UK last week (13 April).
The team are piloting two submersible robotic gliders deployed in mid-February from the NOC-operated research ship RRS James Cook. The gliders named ‘Doombar – 405’ and ‘HSB – 439’, were launched into the water some 200kms offshore from South Georgia. Their mission was to monitor the effects of the melting of the ‘mega-berg’ on the ecosystem.
BBC News
image captionWide but extremely thin: A68 was about 230m thick on average
The iceberg that was for a time the biggest in the world is no more.
A68, as it was known, covered an area of nearly 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq miles) when it broke away from Antarctica in 2017.
That s like a small country; it s equal to a quarter of the size of Wales.
But satellites show the mega-berg has now virtually gone, broken into countless small fragments that the US National Ice Center says are no longer worth tracking.
A68 calved from the Larson C Ice Shelf on the edge of the Antarctic Peninsula, and for a year it hardly moved. But then it started to drift north with increasing speed, riding on strong currents and winds.
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