THE world’s biggest iceberg is on the move for the first time after being stuck to the ocean floor for 30 years.
The iceberg, called A23a, is twice the size of London and is headed towards a British island.
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The megaberg split from the Antarctic coastline in 1986 but was quickly anchored to the ocean floor.
It essentially became an ice island spanning over 1,500 sq miles.
The past year has seen it drifting at speed, and now it is about to leave the Antarctic waters.
But it’s not just the size of the ice island that’s impressive.
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The slab of ice is 1,312 ft thick, making it taller than the 1,016ft London Shard skyscraper.
A23a is one of the bergs that broke off from the Antarctic’s Filchner Ice Shelf 37 years ago.
At the time, it hosted a Soviet research station dubbed “Druzhnaya 1”.
Moscow dispatched an expedition to retrieve equipment from the base before it was lost.
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But the berg didn’t move far from the coast as its deep keel got stuck in the Weddell Sea’s bottom-muds.
Now the iceberg, driven by winds and currents, is passing the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Dr Andrew Fleming, a remote sensing expert from the British Antarctic Survey, told BBC: ” It was grounded since 1986 but eventually it was going to decrease (in size) sufficiently to lose grip and start moving.
“I spotted first movement back in 2020.”
Like most icebergs in the Weddell sector, A23a will most likely be thrown into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
From there, it will be ejected onto a path known as “iceberg alley”.
The huge iceberg might be on the path towards a British territory.
South Georgia island frequently sees big tabular bergs sitting offshore.
The ice blocks often get pinned on the British Overseas Territory’s shallow continental shelf.
If A23a gets stuck near South Georgia, it might pose a problem for the millions of seals, penguins and other seabirds that inhabit the island.
The megaberg could get in the way of the animal’s normal foraging routes, preventing them from feeding their young properly.
But all icebergs eventually melt and wither away, releasing mineral dust.
And this dust is a source of viral nutrients for the organisms that support the foundation of oceanic food chains.
“In many ways these icebergs are life-giving; they are the origin point for a lot of biological activity,” said Dr Catherine Walker, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The scientists will observe the movement of A23a closely.
The previous world’s biggest iceberg, A68a, was three times the size of London and was estimated to weigh a whopping trillion tons.
It was on a collision course with the remote British territory, posing a huge threat to destroy the surrounding seafloor and ecosystem by releasing freezing water.
Luckily, it stopped around 100 miles away from the South Georgia island.
But the biggest iceberg ever recorded sadly disappeared, completely melting two years ago with no traces left behind.
Another huge iceberg right about the size of our capital has broken off from Antarctica near a UK research site.
Most of the staff have left the British Antarctic Survey Base over the fears of an incident like this taking place.
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