The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, has started moving again after months of swirling in an ocean vortex. This information was provided by researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on the organization’s official website, writes gazeta.ru.
This huge ice mass, three times larger than New York City and weighing about a trillion tons, has a long history. It separated from the Antarctic Filchner Glacier in 1986, after which the iceberg almost immediately ran aground near the coast, which significantly slowed down the process of its destruction.
At the end of 2023, A23a was finally freed from many years of captivity, but its journey was short-lived – it fell into the zone of a powerful ocean vortex known as the Taylor Column, located east of the South Orkney Islands.
Only recently did this ice giant manage to escape from the vortex, and now it continues its journey from Antarctica.
The scientific community is closely monitoring the movement of A23a, as its movement is of particular research interest. Observations of the mega-iceberg help to understand its impact on the marine environment. Most importantly, such massive ice formations are a source of valuable nutrients that help to form rich ecosystems in barren ocean zones.
