The world's largest iceberg ran aground in the South Atlantic

The world's largest and oldest iceberg A23a weighing about 1 trillion tons has stopped drifting, most likely it ran aground on the continental shelf of the subantarctic island of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (British Overseas Territory). This is reported by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

It is specified that the giant A23a broke off from the Filchner ice shelf in Antarctica in 1986, and then remained stranded in the Weddell Sea for more than 30 years. Since 2020, the iceberg has begun to drift with the currents of the Southern Ocean towards South Georgia. The movement schedule of the block shows that it has remained stationary since March 1 of this year.

According to BAS oceanographer, Dr. Andrew Meyers, satellite images show that while A23a retains its structure and has not yet broken up into smaller pieces, as previous mega icebergs did.

"At the end of 2023, I was on the research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough when it sailed along the A23a, which took almost the whole day. It's like a towering wall coming out of the ocean, stretching from horizon to horizon. Some parts were quite pitted and eroded by the action of waves and melting," the scientist also said.

Myers stressed that the appearance of such giant icebergs is not usually associated with global warming and is "a completely normal part of the life cycle of the ice sheets of Antarctica (and Greenland)."

The scientist also added that now the iceberg is stranded, and the probability of its destruction is even higher due to increased loads, but it is almost impossible to predict its future fate. There have been cases when icebergs went far to the north, but they all inevitably disintegrated and quickly melted.

As reported by EADaily, in November last year it became known that in the area of Eva-Liv island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago in The Arctic ice formation — the island of Mesyatsev - has disappeared.