![]() Millions of seals, penguins, and seabirds breed on the island and forage in the surrounding waters. That would pose a problem for Antarctica’s wildlife. It’s possible A23a could again become grounded at South Georgia island. The British Antarctic Survey said it had now ungrounded and is moving along ocean currents to sub-Antarctic South Georgia. “I asked a couple of colleagues about this, wondering if there was any possible change in shelf water temperatures that might have provoked it, but the consensus is the time had just come,” Fleming told the BBC.įleming said he had first spotted movement from the iceberg in 2020. A23a is also among the world’s oldest icebergs.Īndrew Fleming, a remote sensing expert from the British Antarctic Survey, told the BBC on Friday that the iceberg had been drifting for the past year and now appeared to be picking up speed. ![]() “Over time it’s probably just thinned slightly and got that little bit of extra buoyancy that’s allowed it to lift off the ocean floor and get pushed by ocean currents,” said Marsh. It is not clear why it is making a run for it now. This will funnel it toward the Southern Ocean on a path known as “iceberg alley” where others of its kind can be found bobbing in dark waters. It’s rare to see an iceberg of this size on the move, said British Antarctic Survey glaciologist Oliver Marsh, so scientists will be watching its trajectory closely.Īs it gains steam, the colossal iceberg will probably be launched into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
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