Giant iceberg on crash course with island – penguins and seals in danger

The world’s largest iceberg is on a collision course with a remote British island, potentially endangering penguins and seals.

The iceberg is moving north from Antarctica toward South Georgia, a rugged British territory and wildlife refuge, where it may run aground and break into pieces. It is currently 173 miles (280 km) away.

Countless birds and seals died in South Georgia’s icy bays and beaches when the last giant icebergs stopped feeding them.

“Icebergs are inherently dangerous. I would be very happy if they missed us altogether,” Sea Captain Simon Wallace, speaking from the South Georgia government ship Faros, tells BBC News.

A group of scientists, sailors and fishermen around the world are eagerly examining satellite images to track the daily movements of this queen of icebergs.

it is Known as A23a And is one of the oldest in the world.

It broke off or broke off the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986, but became stranded on the sea floor and then caught in an oceanic vortex.

Finally, in December, it broke free and is now on its final journey, speeding towards oblivion.

Warm water in Antarctica’s north is melting and weakening its towering cliffs, which rise up to 1,312 feet (400 metres), taller than the Shard in London.

It once had an area of ​​3,900 square km, but the latest satellite images show that it is slowly being destroyed. It now covers about 3,500 km², approximately the size of the English county of Cornwall.

And large slabs of ice are breaking and falling into the water around its shores.

A23a could break up any day into huge chunks that could hang around for years, like floating cities of ice hovering uncontrollably around South Georgia.

This is not the first giant iceberg to threaten South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands.

In 2004 a ship called A38 ran aground on its continental shelf, leaving dead penguin chicks and seal pups on beaches as massive ice floes blocked their access to feeding grounds Was.

The area is home to valuable colonies of king emperor penguins and millions of elephant and fur seals.

“South Georgia is located in Iceberg Alley, so impacts on both fisheries and wildlife can be expected, and both have a large capacity for adaptation,” says Mark Belchior, a marine ecologist who advises the South Georgia government. “

Sailors and fishermen say icebergs are a growing problem. One called A76 in 2023 gave them a scare when it came close to grounding.

“The pieces were rising up, so they looked like big ice towers, an ice city on the horizon,” says Mr. Belchior, who saw the iceberg in the ocean.

Those slabs still exist around the islands today.

“It ranges from pieces the size of several Wembley stadiums to pieces the size of your desk,” says Andrew Newman of Argos Froyness, a fishing company operating in South Georgia.

“Those pieces basically cover the island – we have to work our way through it,” says Captain Wallace.

Sailors on his ship must remain constantly alert. “We had searchlights burning all night to try to see the ice – it could come from anywhere,” he explains.

According to Mr Newman, the A76 was a “gamechanger” which had a “huge impact on our operations and keeping our ships and crew safe”.

The three men describe a rapidly changing environment, featuring glacial retreat and unstable sea ice levels from year to year.

Climate change is unlikely to be behind the birth of A23a because it evolved so long ago, before most of the effects of rising temperatures we are seeing now.

But giant icebergs are part of our future. As Antarctica becomes more unstable with warmer ocean and air temperatures, more massive pieces of ice sheets will break off.

However, before its time is up, A23a has left a farewell gift for scientists.

A team from the British Antarctic Survey on the research vessel Sir David Attenborough finds itself close to A23a in 2023.

Scientists worked hard to take advantage of a rare opportunity to investigate what impact huge icebergs have on the environment.

The ship drifted into a crack in the iceberg’s massive walls, and PhD researcher Laura Taylor collected precious water samples 400 meters away from its rocks.

“As far as I could see, I saw a huge wall of ice much higher than me. It had different colors in different places. Pieces were falling – it was quite spectacular,” she said from her laboratory in Cambridge. Analysis of samples tells where she is now.

Their work looks at how meltwater is impacting the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean.

“It’s not just water like we drink. It’s full of nutrients and chemicals, as well as tiny animals like phytoplankton,” says Ms Taylor.

As it melts, the iceberg releases those elements into the water, changing the physics and chemistry of the ocean.

This could lead to more carbon being stored in the depths of the ocean, as particles sink below the surface. This would naturally offset some of the planet’s carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.

Icebergs are extremely unpredictable and no one knows exactly what it will do next.

But soon a monstrous island will appear looming on the horizon, almost as large as this area.