The world's largest iceberg, known as A23a, is on a collision course with South Georgia Island, a delicate ecosystem that is home to penguins and seals.
Measuring roughly 1,350 square miles (3,500 square kilometers) across, A23a is the world's largest and oldest iceberg according to AFP News. Its imposing size and slow, steady movement have captivated oceanographers and researchers alike, though predicting its exact path has proven difficult due to the unpredictable forces of ocean currents.
The world's biggest iceberg is drifting toward a tiny south Atlantic island, potentially affecting the wildlife there, including seals and penguins.
The trillion-ton slab of ice named A23a could slam into South Georgia Island and get stuck or be guided around it by currents.
Visible from space, the world’s largest iceberg is headed towards a remote Antarctic island, threatening local animals.
While warming temperatures are driving a widespread loss of ice shelves, major calving events have not increased in frequency or size.
This is not the first time an iceberg has posed a threat to South Georgia. In 2004, iceberg A38 "grounded on its continental shelf, leaving dead penguin chicks and seal pups on beaches as massive ice chunks blocked their access to feeding grounds,
Iceberg A23a, one of the world's largest icebergs, is drifting toward South Georgia, posing potential risks to wildlife and sailors.
The world's biggest iceberg -- more than twice the size of London -- could drift towards a remote island where a scientist warns it risks disrupting feeding for baby penguins
For over 30 years, the A23a iceberg stayed anchored to the Antarctic Weddell Sea floor before it shrank and lost its grip on the seafloor which turned it into a massive floating fragment of ice. The iceberg has been floating for the past two years.
If it gets stuck near South Georgia Island, that could make it hard for penguin parents to feed their babies and some young could starve.
A23a has followed roughly the same path as previous massive icebergs, passing the east side of the Antarctica Peninsula through the Weddell Sea along a route called "iceberg alley." That is the ...