The world's largest iceberg has broken off and floated towards the Southern Ocean.

The world's largest iceberg, A23a, has begun to move for the first time in more than three decades. About it writes Reuters with reference to a message from scientists.

Since the iceberg broke off from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in West Antarctica in 1986, which once housed a Soviet research station, found itself stranded in the sea Weddell. But recent satellite images show that A23a weighs almost a trillion tons and measures about 4,000 square kilometers is now rapidly drifting past the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula. Its movement is facilitated by strong winds and currents.

It's rare to see an iceberg of this size moving, so scientists will be closely monitoring its trajectory, British Antarctic Survey glaciologist Oliver Marsh said. In addition, A23a is one of the oldest icebergs in the world, which gives it additional weight in the scientific community.

It is possible that the iceberg will run aground again off South Georgia Island. This will pose a problem for Antarctica's wildlife. Millions of seals, penguins and seabirds breed on the island and feed in the surrounding waters. The huge A23a could become a serious obstacle for them.

In 2020, another giant iceberg, A68, could also hit South Georgia, crushing marine life on the bottom and cutting off access to food. This disaster for the local bioworld was ultimately averted when the ice floe broke up into smaller pieces. The same ending may await A23a.

But an iceberg of this size has the potential to survive for quite a long time in the Southern Ocean, even though there is much more warmer, and it could move further north towards South Africa, where it could disrupt shipping, added scientist Oliver Marsh.

What is noteworthy is that in the summer about the drift of A23a reported specialists from the Center for Ice and Hydrometeorological Information (TSIHMI) of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI). At that time, the iceberg's speed was only about 150 km per month.

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13 hours ago

+3 / 0

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