Iceberg A23a is a huge iceberg that formed in 1986 when it broke off from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Since then, it has been anchored on the bottom of the Weddell Sea, barely moving, until 2020, when it began to move, driven by winds and currents.
Its surface area is about 4,000 km², equivalent to half the area of the province of Barcelona, and its thickness is about 400 meters, which is greater than the Empire State Building in New York.
And after almost 40 years in the frozen Antarctic lands, the huge iceberg A23a broke away from the seabed in the Weddell Sea.
On November 25, major media outlets reported that the A23a had finally started moving. However, the iceberg’s quest for freedom actually began in 2020, when it began to break free from its moorings on the seabed. reported the BBC.
Satellite images published on X (formerly known as Twitter) of the British Antarctic Survey show that A23a finally began to move away from its dead center in January of this year. Since then, he has traveled hundreds of miles along the coast of Antarctica.
Christopher Schumann, a glaciologist at the University of Maryland and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, commented to Live Science that being stuck in place for decades “is not unusual” for icebergs this size. The first explorers of Antarctica called them “ice islands.”
Ocean currents will push A23a north toward the Drake Passage, also known as the iceberg graveyard, the body of water through which most of the other large icebergs in the Weddell Sea hatch.
A possible collision point for the iceberg could be the Antarctic islands of South Georgia.
Source: Digital Trends
I am Garth Carter and I work at Gadget Onus. I have specialized in writing for the Hot News section, focusing on topics that are trending and highly relevant to readers. My passion is to present news stories accurately, in an engaging manner that captures the attention of my audience.
