Satellite images recently showed that over the period of three months in 2020/2021, the mega iceberg A-68 largely melted, discharging more than 150 billion tons of freshwater into the seas surrounding South Georgia.
As indicated in a Daily Express report, scientists have cautioned that the substantial "mega iceberg" that floats around the subantarctic region has produced billions of tons of freshwater into the ocean.
The amount of water produced is equivalent to 20 times the amount of water in Loch Ness or 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In 2017, the A68A iceberg released the Larsen-C Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula and started its 3.5 years, roughly a 4,000-kilometer journey across the Southern Ocean.
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The western edge of the famed iceberg A-68 carved from the Larsen C ice shelf is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft, near the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula region, above Antarctica.
A Huge Amount of Meltwater
The iceberg was the hugest of the kind when it first formed, spanning more than 5,700 square kilometers, a quarter of the size of Wales. It was the sixth biggest iceberg on record, as well.
During Christmas 2020, the iceberg brought panic worldwide as it started to move hazardously close to the island of South Georgia, raising concerns that it could put the island's fragile ecosystem in danger.
Findings have shown that the iceberg had melted enough as it floated to avoid damaging the seafloor that surrounds the South Georgia island.
Nonetheless, a side effect of the melting was that the iceberg released a huge amount of fresh water in close vicinity to the island.
The researchers have cautioned that this occurrence resulted in a disturbance that could have a weighty impact on the marine habitat of the island.
Researcher at CPOM Anne Braakmaan-Folgmann, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Leeds' School of Earth and Environment and the study's lead author said, this is a great amount of melting water and what they want to do next is learn if the occurrence had a favorable or adverse effect on the ecosystem surrounding South Georgia, DayToNews said in a similar report.
She also said that since A68A took a usual route across the Drake passage, they hope to find out more about icebergs that take a similar trajectory and how they influence the polar oceans.
Tourist Attractions at Risk of Going Underwater by 2030
Because of global warming, icebergs are quickly melting, which is leading the global sea levels to slowly rise, putting a lot of populated cities, not to mention tourist attractions, at risk of being submerged by 2030," the researchers noted in their study.
One of the cities possible to go underwater by that year in Amsterdam. As indicated in the research, about a-thirds of the Netherlands lie below sea level, having the lowest point, 22 feet below sea level, Mail Online reported.
While the country has developed considerable flood defenses to avoid such a disaster, rising sea levels will only put this prominent tourist hotspot at risk.
Besides rising sea levels, Venice faces the danger of the city itself sinking by two millimeters each year. Meanwhile, in Asia, Kolkata lies in India on a fertile flat plain, making it highly vulnerable to being flooded by rising sea levels, specifically during the yearly monsoon season.
And similar to Venice, Bangkok lies a few meters above sea level, and it is sinking by between two and three millimeters each year.
Lastly, a 2020 study revealed that Bangkok could be the worst-hit city worldwide because of global warming.
Report about the 'Mega-Iceberg' A-68 is shown on News Watch 24's YouTube video below:
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