{"id":127923,"date":"2025-09-02T19:21:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/127923\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T19:21:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:21:03","slug":"worlds-biggest-iceberg-breaks-up-after-40-years-most-dont-make-it-this-far-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/127923\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s biggest iceberg breaks up after 40 years: \u2018Most don\u2019t make it this far\u2019 | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 40 years after breaking off Antarctica<\/a>, a colossal iceberg ranked among the oldest and largest ever recorded is finally crumbling apart in warmer waters, and could disappear within weeks.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the \u201cmegaberg\u201d known as A23a weighed a little under a trillion tonnes and was more than twice the size of Greater London, a behemoth unrivalled at the time.<\/p>\n

The gigantic slab of frozen freshwater was so large it even briefly threatened penguin feeding grounds on a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean<\/a>, but ended up moving on.<\/p>\n

It is now less than half its original size, but still a hefty 1,770 sq km (683 sq miles) and 60km (37 miles) at its widest point, according to AFP analysis of satellite images by the EU Earth observation monitor Copernicus.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, enormous chunks \u2013 about 400 sq km in their own right \u2013 have broken off while smaller chips, many still large enough to threaten ships, litter the sea around it.<\/p>\n

It was \u201cbreaking up fairly dramatically\u201d as it drifted farther north, Andrew Meijers, a physical oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey, told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s very much on its way out \u2026 it\u2019s basically rotting underneath. The water is way too warm for it to maintain. It\u2019s constantly melting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect that to continue in the coming weeks, and expect it won\u2019t be really identifiable within a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

A23a calved from the Antarctic shelf in 1986 but quickly grounded in the Weddell Sea, remaining stuck on the ocean floor for over 30 years.<\/p>\n

It finally escaped in 2020 and, like other giants before it, was carried along \u201ciceberg alley\u201d into the South Atlantic Ocean by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current.<\/p>\n

Around March, it ran aground in shallow waters off distant South Georgia island<\/a>, raising fears it could disrupt large colonies of adult penguins and seals there from feeding their young.<\/p>\n

But it dislodged in late May, and moved on.<\/p>\n

Swinging around the island and tracking north, in recent weeks the iceberg has picked up speed, sometimes travelling up to 20km in a single day, satellite images analysed by AFP showed.<\/p>\n

Exposed to increasingly warmer waters, and buffeted by huge waves, A23a has rapidly disintegrated.<\/p>\n

Scientists were \u201csurprised\u201d how long the iceberg had kept together, said Meijers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost icebergs don\u2019t make it this far. This one\u2019s really big so it has lasted longer and gone further than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

But ultimately, icebergs are \u201cdoomed\u201d once they leave the freezing protection of Antarctica, he added.<\/p>\n

Iceberg calving is a natural process. But scientists say the rate at which they were being lost from Antarctica is increasing, probably because of human induced climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 40 years after breaking off Antarctica, a colossal iceberg ranked among the oldest and largest ever recorded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-127923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}