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The fate of the world’s largest iceberg
WARMER temperatures, waves, and erosion have begun carving a dreamlike landscape of dramatic arches, caves, and cliffs into the world’s largest iceberg, A23a.
A ship run by expedition company Eyos recently captured spectacular images of A23a, which broke away from Antarctica’s Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986.
For decades the sprawling iceberg was anchored to the bottom of the Weddell Sea like a massive immovable ice island. However, by the end of last year, it started moving northwards from the Weddell Sea region into the Southern Ocean.
A23a is now drifting about 48 km a day in the so-called Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a large strip of water that circulates clockwise around Antarctica – and is being gradually eroded.
“We saw waves of four metres smashing into the berg. This creates cascades of ice and helps drive a constant state of erosion,” said Eyos expedition
