The world’s largest iceberg no longer exists. New satellite images show that a huge chunk of ice roughly twice the size of Los Angeles has split into several slabs the size of a city. The iceberg, known as A-76A, was the largest remnant of a Rhode Island-sized plate that broke off Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf in May 2021.
In October 2022, satellite imagery showed that A-76A, which was about 84 miles (135 kilometers) long and 16 miles (26 km) wide at the time, crossed into a strip of water known as Drake Pass, where icebergs were found. found. they are usually carried from Antarctica by strong ocean currents.
On May 24, NASA’s Terra satellite captured a new image of six large A-76A fragments drifting near South Georgia Island in the Scotia Sea; To NASA’s Earth Observatory. The iceberg debris was about 1,500 miles (2,415 km) from where the A-76 left Antarctica in 2021.
“It’s mind-blowing to think it’s gotten this far in about two years,” said Christopher Shuman, a glaciologist at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in an interview with NASA’s Earth Observatory. “This clearly speaks to the strength of strong currents in this part of the Southern Ocean.”
The photo, taken by NASA’s Terra satellite on Oct. 31, shows the world’s largest iceberg, A-76A, located in Drake Pass near Antarctica. A-68A, the previous world’s largest iceberg, also collapsed near South Georgia in December 2020 after being hit by a slingshot across Drake Pass.
South Georgia is reportedly likely to have another disintegrating iceberg in the coming years. In January, a London-sized ice sheet called A-81 emerged from the Brant Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Studies show that the A-81 could also enter Drake Pass, which could launch it into South Georgia.
The A-76A and A-81 aren’t the only icebergs that have moved recently. In October 2022, an iceberg known as B-22A, about twice the size of Houston, Texas, began to drift off Antarctica after spending more than 20 years attached to the seabed near the Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday glacier.” .
Source: Port Altele
