2023-11-25 06:00:00
Time.news – The world knew him as iceberg “A23a”, the largest iceberg in the world: an enormous block of ice of over 4 thousand square meters and with a thickness of 400 meters, approximately as large as a European metropolis, which had detached itself from the ice ofAntarctica. ‘Physiological’ phenomena not linked to climate change, scientists explained in August last year, when the enormous block that until then had remained stationary, stranded on the bottom of the Weddel Sea, began to move after breaking the anchor.
The scientists, he specified in a report Bbc World they have never stopped keeping an eye on it because as it approaches the South Atlantic “it could threaten the flora and fauna near South Georgia Island”.
World’s biggest iceberg on the move after 30 years
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 24, 2023
The A23a iceberg, according to experts questioned by the BBC, has passed the Larsen Ice Shelf in the northwestern Weddell Sea, pushed by westerly currents and winds. It is moving along a trajectory known as the “iceberg corridor” towards South Georgia. As it enters these waters, the ice behemoth will suffer the fate of many icebergs: it will slowly melt before disappearing into the seas. But it is precisely this scenario that is alarming given the size of the iceberg.
“If this happened, animals could be cut off from the ocean, which is their food source,” the BBC explains. A danger that experts would like, with a little optimism, to minimize: icebergs can transport minerals from the ocean floor and provide, after they have melted, even richer nourishment to local fauna.
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