Iceberg 3 Times the Size of New York City Drifting for Past Year Not Surprising, Expert Says

A giant iceberg has been seen drifting in the ocean in the past year. An expert spoke about it and explained why the incident was expected.

Massive Iceberg From Antarctic's Flichner Ice Shelf Floating

In 1986, the iceberg, dubbed A23a, broke off from the Antarctic's Filchner Ice Shelf. However, it adhered to the seabed and stayed in the Weddell Sea for a long time.

At over 4,000 square kilometers, the iceberg is almost three times the size of New York City and more than twice the area of Greater London (1,500 square miles).

The iceberg has been floating for the past year, and with the assistance of wind and ocean currents, it now seems to be gaining momentum and passing the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, according to Andrew Fleming, a remote sensing specialist from the British Antarctic Survey.

"I asked a couple of colleagues about this, wondering if there was any possible change in shelf water temperatures that might have provoked it, but the consensus is the time had just come," Fleming explained. "It was grounded since 1986, but eventually, it was going to decrease (in size) sufficiently was to lose grip and start moving."

According to Fleming, movement from the iceberg was first observed in 2020. According to the British Antarctic Survey, it is currently ungrounded and traveling to South Georgia, which is sub-Antarctic, by ocean currents. Driven by winds and currents, A23a has increased its speed in the last several months and is currently crossing the Antarctic Peninsula's northern tip.

A23a, like the majority of icebergs from the Weddell region, will most likely be thrown into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which will carry it along what is now known as "iceberg alley" and towards the South Atlantic.

The renowned explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton used the same water movement and associated westerlies in 1916 to leave Antarctica after his ship, the Endurance, was destroyed by collapsing sea ice.

Shackleton pointed his lifeboat toward South Georgia, the island where the large tabular bergs are often seen sitting offshore. Because of their keels, the blocks tend to get pinned on the shallow continental shelf of the British Overseas Territory.

All icebergs, no matter how large, will eventually melt and disappear.

Antarctic's Filchner Ice Shelf

The enormous floating ice shelf known as the Filchner Ice Shelf is located near the head of the Weddell Sea, an indentation in Antarctica's Atlantic coast. It covers an area of 100,400 square miles (260,000 square kilometers) and is more than 650 feet (200 meters) thick. The shelf stretches more than 250 miles (400 km) inland on the east side of Berkner Island, ending at the Pensacola Mountains' escarpment. Originally, the entire shelf-including the bigger region currently known as the Ronne Ice Shelf west of Berkner Island-was referred to as Filchner. This is why the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf is often used to refer to the entire ice sheet, along with the fact that the two shelves can only be divided at Berkner Island.

The ice shelf, named for the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner, claims to date back to 1942 and 1908, respectively, from Argentina and the United Kingdom. Along its northern border, research stations have been run by the United States, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.

Check out more news and information on the ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE in Science Times.