Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
More than a year ago, Tortoise reported that the world’s largest iceberg was leaving Antarctic waters. It might be about to hit land.
A23a is more than twice the size of Greater London, taller than the Shard, and now about 150 miles from the remote island of South Georgia – and heading for it.
South Georgia is home to millions of Antarctic fur seals, hundreds of thousands of king penguins and about a thousand pairs of wandering albatrosses.
The iceberg is forecast to ground in the British overseas territory and break into pieces, where it could endanger the island’s wildlife by disrupting their feeding patterns.
But don’t stay up worrying; icebergs are notoriously fickle.
This one calved from the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986, became moored on the seafloor for more than 30 years, and recently spent months spinning on the spot after it got stuck in a vortex in Iceberg Alley. It may yet change course.
Photograph BFSAI
