Since the bulk of an iceberg is below the water, the entire berg was estimated to be as tall as a 55-story building! The tallest known iceberg in the North Atlantic was 550 feet (168 m) above sea level. Small bergs (a little smaller than a car) are known as “growlers,” while slightly larger bergs (about the size of a house) are called”bergy bits.” Larger bergs are classified as small, medium, large, and very large. Icebergs float in salt water because they are formed by calving, or splitting, glaciers and are thus made of fresh water. Ice melt and collapse in the region will inevitably lead to disastrous higher sea levels worldwide.Icebergs are found in the Arctic, North Atlantic, and Southern Oceans. The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, reaching a record high temperature of nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit last February. While A68a has followed the path of other broken-off icebergs, its sheer size allowed it to survive longer than most, which traditionally break apart in warmer waters before reaching South Georgia. When A68a broke off the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula in July 2017, scientists expected the 1-trillion ton iceberg to break apart fairly quickly. Officials said it was nearly impossible to photograph the iceberg due to its massive size, with the exception of satellite imagery. The iceberg's journey from SeptemNovember 13, 2020. It has diminished substantially in size in the last few years, and the images also show a large number of smaller icebergs in the surrounding waters. This week, the British Royal Air Force released new images and video footage of the iceberg, which capture its monstrous size, as well as its many tunnels, cracks and fissures. That's getting so close that it's almost inevitable." "But it is really, really close, less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the south shelf edge. The currents "still have the power to take this iceberg in one direction or another away from South Georgia," Tarling told Reuters on Wednesday. But its proximity to the island has made the collision increasingly likely, although not inevitable, and government officials, the British Royal Air Force and scientists alike are all currently tracking the iceberg's every move, along with the currents and winds that direct it. It is difficult for scientists to predict the movements of the iceberg over the coming days, as they are dictated by changing ocean currents and storms. Part of the huge debris field of smaller icebergs around A68a. Tarling said that, if the iceberg were to remain in the open ocean, it will help fertilize ocean plankton, which cascades up the food chain and draws in carbon from the atmosphere, hopefully offsetting human CO2 emissions.Īccording to NASA, the iceberg measures about 93 miles long and 30 miles wide - nearly the size of the island itself. Not only would avoiding a collision protect the South Georgian wildlife, it would also bring benefits to the environment. "If they have to do a big detour, it means they're not going to get back to their young in time to prevent them starving to death in the interim." "When you're talking about penguins and seals during the period that's really crucial to them – during pup- and chick-rearing – the actual distance they have to travel to find food (fish and krill) really matters," Professor Geraint Tarling, an ecologist at British Antarctic Survey, said in a news release last month. Martin Zwick/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images King Penguins on the island of South Georgia. If the iceberg anchors itself in place, it would block the local wildlife's foraging routes, making it extremely difficult to find food. A68a is currently less than 100 miles off the coast of the South Atlantic island - and scientists predict the collision could occur within days or weeks.Ī collision threatens the unique wildlife that lives on the British overseas territory, including 1.3 million pairs of Chinstrap penguins - one of the world's largest colonies - about 5 million seals, and 65 million breeding birds. The European Space Agency says the iceberg, called A68a, is on course to collide with the island after years of floating towards it due to ocean currents. Now, that iceberg is headed directly for South Georgia Island - threatening to devastate the fragile penguin colony that calls the island home. Impact of massive iceberg that broke off Antarctica 02:10Īn enormous iceberg measuring roughly the length of Delaware broke off an Antarctic ice shelf in 2017.
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