Dancing in the whirlpool: the world’s largest iceberg is stuck
Published: Sunday, Aug 11th 2024, 05:40
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What is currently the world's largest iceberg is probably stuck in a huge whirlpool. The colossus known as A23a has been spinning around itself in the Southern Ocean for months, as satellite images show. It takes the iceberg a good 24 days to complete one turn.
It is possible that the iceberg will not be able to escape the so-called Taylor Column for years, according to the British broadcaster BBC, citing experts.
However, this also prevents the colossus from reaching warmer climes carried by ocean currents and melting more quickly. "A23a is the iceberg that simply refuses to die," the BBC quotes polar expert Mark Brandon from the Open University.
Near the South Orkney Islands, northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula, it rotates around 15 degrees counterclockwise every day, as the British Antarctic Survey polar research institute announced on the X platform.
4000 square kilometers in size
The iceberg is around 4000 square kilometers in size, roughly twice the size of the canton of St. Gallen. In the meantime, waves and weathering have carved huge arches and cave-like depressions into the colossus, as images from a ship belonging to the company Eyos Expeditions from mid-January show.
A23a broke away from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the Antarctic in 1986, but remained stuck to the seabed for decades. After breaking away in 2000, it went on a kind of spurt at times - only to remain in one place again.
According to the European Space Agency Esa, icebergs from the so-called Weddell sector usually end up in the South Atlantic and melt away.
©Keystone/SDA
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