The world s most suspenseful iceberg is breaking apart
Iceberg A-68A breaking apart on Dec. 21.
Image: Copernicus Sentinel / Pierre Markuse
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Last week, iceberg A-68a was larger than Rhode Island. By Dec. 23, satellite footage showed the berg had broken apart into several (though still massive) chunks of ice.Â
Earth scientists have followed this enormous iceberg since July 2017, when it snapped off an ice shelf (the end of a glacier that floats over the ocean) in Antarctica. But over the last month, the berg stirred fresh intrigue. While drifting through the Southern Atlantic Ocean, A-68a was on course to potentially run aground off of similarly-sized South Georgia Island, a biologically rich, remote British territory about 800 miles east of the Falkland Islands. That could threaten wildlife and the marine environment around the penguin-populated island.
Image: Stef Lhermitte/TUDelft
The world’s largest free-floating iceberg appears to have lost its northernmost section, a possible result of it slamming into the shallow continental shelf surrounding the ecologically sensitive South Georgia island.
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A chunk of ice measuring approximately 70 square miles (180 square kilometers) has sheared away from iceberg A68a, according to new photos taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite and NASA’s MODIS satellite.
“What can be seen is the iceberg most likely hitting the continental shelf with its northern tip, causing a part to break off of it, thereby spawning a new berg,” Pierre Markuse, a remote sensing expert, explained in an email. “Up until now, it doesn’t seem like any parts of the iceberg are grounded, but satellite images in the next few days will show whether both parts still move freely with the currents.”
Science
Meet the most suspenseful berg on Earth.
Enormous iceberg A-68a, which at some 1,500 square miles is currently larger than Rhode Island, has captured the attention of Antarctic and earth science researchers. For over a month, it s gradually approached South Georgia Island in the remote Southern Atlantic Ocean. Now, the berg is flirting with grounding, and potentially getting stuck, off the island. The event is a big curiosity: It s unknown what the great berg will ultimately do and how it might impact life on and around the biologically-rich, penguin-populated island. It s a fascinating berg, given the size and trajectory, said Stef Lhermitte, an assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands.
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The world s largest iceberg is on track to crash into a small island, where it could wipe out a generation of penguin chicks and seal pups
The world s largest iceberg is on track to crash into a small island, where it could wipe out a generation of penguin chicks and seal pups
Morgan McFall-JohnsenDec 16, 2020, 05:01 IST
A gentoo penguin with a newborn chick.Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The world s largest iceberg is drifting dangerously close to
South Georgia Island, where millions of penguins and seals are breeding.
If the
animals access to the ocean.
If
penguins and seals have to travel across the 30-mile iceberg to get food from the ocean, many of their young will starve.
World s Largest Iceberg on Track to Crash Into Island Haven For Penguins And Seals
MORGAN MCFALL-JOHNSEN, BUSINESS INSIDER
16 DECEMBER 2020
The world s largest iceberg might crash into an island populated by penguins and seals, which could cause mass starvation among the animals young.
The iceberg, dubbed A68a, broke off from an Antarctic ice shelf in 2017. It has been drifting north ever since, and now it s dangerously close to South Georgia Island. The area is a haven to millions of gentoo, macaroni, and king penguins, as well as fur seals and elephant seals.
Some bits of the glacier have broken off along the way, but A68a maintains its record-breaking bulk. The iceberg is 94 miles (151 kilometers) long and 30 miles (48 kilometers) wide. South Georgia Island, meanwhile, is 105 miles (169 km) long and 24 miles (38 km) wide.