A week ago, iceberg A-68a was larger in size compared to Rhode Island. As of December 23, satellite footage displayed the berg had broken apart into several chunks of ice, although they remain massive.

Specifically, the iceberg was around 1,500 square miles larger than Rhode Island, and it has caught the attention of Antarctic and researchers of earth science.

Earth scientists have observed this gigantic iceberg since 2017, after it snapped off an ice shelf, a glacier's end that floats above the ocean, in Antarctica.

Nevertheless, over the past month, the berg stirred a new controversy. While it drifted through the Southern Atlantic Ocean, A-68a was on course to possibly run around off a same-sized South Georgia Island, which multimedia platform Mashable described as "a biologically rich, remote British territory" roughly 800 miles east of the Falkland Islands.

That, the platform could endanger wildlife, as well as the marine environment surrounding the penguin-populated island.

Continuing to Break Apart

According to Assistant Professor Stef Lhermitte, from the department of geoscience and remote sensing at the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology, the A-68a was a fascinating berg, provided its "size and trajectory."

Now, following bumping into the thin floor of the sea off the island and cracking off a chunk of ice, the berg has continued breaking apart.

The US National Ice Center emphasized the resulting new icebergs identified as A-68e and A-68f on Monday. As a whole, the large berg that has now ruptured into bergs has been pushed along in a "current meandering south of the island."

The report, though, is not almost finished. Some new bergs may still get trapped on the shallow seafloor close to other parts of South Georgia. In the past, enormous icebergs have grounded for several months off the island, while other bergs have floated by.

 

Oceans Benefiting from Massive Icebergs

Oceans benefit from massive icebergs as the latter fertilize the waters with minerals while journeying through the sea.

However, the same bergs can endanger life as well, like South Georgia Island, the home to a rich bird, seal, penguin populations, and beyond.

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey are currently observing how icebergs might hinder the said animals from scavenging. They are also observing the manner bounties of freshwater dumping into the ocean could interrupt or the marine environment.

Moreover, icebergs breaking off glaciers is a normal occurrence, a natural incident known as calving.

Marine Researchers Expecting More Icebergs

However, in the years yet to come, marine scientists are expecting more icebergs as warmer ocean waters are melting more ice on an unstoppably warming planet.

By now, Western Antarctica has seen a noticeable rise in calving occurrences. More calving would mean the probability of a profound rise in sea levels, specifically from the stabilized Thwaites glacier of Antarctica, which could possibly let loose many feet of rising in sea level, which experts find "a disastrous consequence."

In the near future, as the climate becomes warmer, Povl Abrahamsen, a physical oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey, last week said, "We will see more icebergs in general."

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Check out more news and information on the Iceberg on Science Times.