The world’s largest iceberg has been stranded for four days about 80 kilometers from Southern Georgia in Antarctica, avoiding a possible collision with the British island – a sanctuary of marine life and an important place of animal reproduction. The announcement was made by the research group British Antarctic Survey, this Tuesday, 4.
The Iceberg A23A has an area of 3,360 square kilometers – more than twice the size of the city of São Paulo – and weighs almost one billion tons. The Ice Block was moving away from the Antarctic Peninsula, towards Southern Georgia Island since December, driven by powerful ocean currents.
There were fears that the iceberg could collide with southern Georgia or rank in shallow waters, closer to the island, which could interrupt the supply of foods for penguins and seals.
“If Iceberg remains stranded, we hope it does not significantly affect local wildlife,” said British Antartic Survey Oceanographer Andrew Meijers, responsible for satellite A23A monitoring in an interview with BBC.
“In recent decades, the numerous icebergs that followed this route through the Antarctic Ocean have fragmented, dispersed and ended up melting quickly. However, as an iceberg departs into smaller pieces, fishing operations in the region become more difficult or potentially dangerous, ”added the researcher.
The A23A is the closest chapter of a story that dates back to 1986, when the mega block of ice came off the Filchner-Ronne platform. For three decades, he was trapped under the sea, still close to the platform. But since then, he began to move north along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.
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Last year, he was trapped in an ocean vortex for eight months. In December, the iceberg broke free from the vortex and seemed inexorably to the Georgia do Sul islands at a speed of approximately 30 kilometers a day.
“The fate of all icebergs is to die,” researcher Huw Griffiths said in an interview with BBC, who is on a British polar research ship in Antarctica. “It’s very surprising to see that the A23a lasted so long and lost only a quarter of its area.”
Originally, the iceberg was 3,900 square kilometers, but when moving toward warmer seas, it was losing large blocks of ice.
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“It should probably be more or less where it is, until more pieces start to detach themselves,” said Andrew Meijers. “Instead of a block of pure and intact ice, the iceberg already features caves under its edges. If the ice underneath is corroded by salt, it will disintegrate under stress, and maybe go to a shallow place. ”
However, where the iceberg bumps into the continental shelf, live thousands of tiny marine creatures such as corals, slugs and sea sponges.
“Your whole universe is being destroyed by a huge ice plate that is scraping the bottom of the sea,” Griffiths explained. “In the short term this can be considered catastrophic for these species, but it is part of the natural cycle of life in the region; While destroying a place, it provides nutrients and foods elsewhere. ”
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Icebergs form when large blocks of ice are detached from glaciers on the continent. They are made up of freshwater and bring nutrients to the sea. Iceberg’s life cycle is a natural process, but the expectation of researchers is that climate change will eventually accelerate the process as Antarctica heats up and becomes more unstable.
That is, more icebergs can be detached from the vast layers of ice on the continent and melt at a faster speed, interrupting wildlife patterns and fishing in the region.
