World’s Biggest Iceberg Moves Towards Antarctic Penguin and Seal Island

Sat Jan 25 2025
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Key points

  • The huge wall of ice is on a collision course with South Georgia
  • Satellite images show this mega-berg is not breaking into smaller pieces
  • Icebergs in the past caused significant mortality to penguin chicks and seal pups
  • The seal and penguin populations are already having a bad season in South Georgia

ISLAMABAD: The huge wall of ice is slowly moving from Antarctica on a possible collision course with South Georgia, an essential wildlife breeding ground in the South Atlantic.

According to the Guardian, the world’s biggest iceberg which is more than twice the size of London could drift towards a faraway island where a scientist informs it risks disturbing feeding for baby penguins and seals.

Satellite imagery suggested that, unlike previous “megabergs,” this one was not breaking into smaller pieces as it plodded through the Southern Ocean, Andrew Meijers, a physical oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey, told media on Friday.

Iceberg’s route

He said predicting its exact route was difficult, however, recent currents suggested the colossus would reach the shallow continental shelf around South Georgia in about two to four weeks.

“But what might happen next is anyone’s guess,” he said.

It could skip the shelf and be carried into open water beyond South Georgia, a British overseas territory some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of the Falkland Islands.

ICEBERG
The A23a iceberg calved from the Antarctic ice shelf in 1986, but only started moving north away from the frozen continent more than 30 years later. —Photo by AFP

Or it could hit the bottom and get stuck for some time or break up into pieces.

Meijers said this situation could negatively obstruct seals and penguins trying to feed and raise their young on the island.

“Icebergs have grounded there in the past and that has caused significant mortality to penguin chicks and seal pups,” he said.

Whitewall 

Around 3,500 square kilometers (1,550 square miles) across, the world’s biggest and oldest iceberg, known as A23a, calved from the Antarctic shelf in 1986.

It remained in one place for over 30 years before finally it broke free in 2020, its lumbering journey north was sometimes slowed by ocean currents that kept it spinning in place.

Meijers, who encountered the iceberg face to face while leading a scientific mission in late 2023, described “a huge white cliff, 40 or 50 meters high, that stretches from horizon to horizon”.

“It’s just liked this white wall. It’s very sort of Game of Thrones-esque, actually,” he said.

“Iceberg alley”

A23a has followed roughly the same path as previous huge icebergs, passing the east side of the Antarctica Peninsula through the Weddell Sea along a route called “iceberg alley”.

Raul Cordero from Chile’s University of Santiago said he was confident the iceberg would sidestep South Georgia.

“The island acts as an obstacle for ocean currents and therefore usually diverts the water long before it reaches the island,” he said.

“The iceberg is moved by that water flow, so the chances of it hitting are not that high,” though chunks could, he said.

Another scientist, glaciologist Soledad Tiranti currently on an Argentinian exploration voyage in the Antarctic, said that icebergs like A23a “are so deep that before reaching an island or mainland they generally get stuck” on the seabed.

Bad season

In South Georgia, it is summer, and resident penguins and seals along its southern coastline are foraging in the frosty waters to bring back food to feed their young.

“If the iceberg parks there, it’ll either block physically where they feed from, or they’ll have to go around it,” said Meijers.

“That burns a huge amount of extra energy for them, so that’s less energy for the pups and chicks, which causes increased mortality.”

The seal and penguin populations in South Georgia have already been having a “bad season” with an outbreak of bird flu “and that (iceberg) would make it significantly worse,” he said.

As A23a finally melted it could provide the water with nutrients that stimulate phytoplankton growth, feeding whales as well as other species, and giving opportunities to scientists to study how such blooms absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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