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Once king of the seas, a giant iceberg is finally breaking up
A23a, once nearly a trillion-tonne iceberg, is shrinking rapidly due to warmer waters and wave action, posing short-term shipping hazards but unlikely to impact local wildlife significantly.
- The iceberg known as A23a is breaking apart in warmer waters and could disappear within weeks, nearly 40 years after it calved from Antarctica and was one of the largest recorded icebergs.
- A23a initially weighed under a trillion tonnes and is now less than half its original size, with substantial chunks breaking off, including some 400 square kilometers each.
- According to Andrew Meijers, a physical oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey, A23a is 'breaking up fairly dramatically' due to warm water, suggesting it won't be identifiable soon.
- Scientists were 'surprised' by how long A23a had lasted, as most icebergs do not survive such conditions, and it is now expected to disappear completely soon.
71 Articles
71 Articles
World's largest iceberg A23A breaks apart, loses title as biggest floating ice
The world’s largest iceberg, A23A, is rapidly splintering and no longer the biggest floating ice. Scientists say it could collapse this season, raising concerns about faster glacier melt, though not immediate sea-level rise.
It was as big as the Spanish holiday island of Mallorca – but now the world's largest iceberg is crumbling at raging speed. Soon the A23a will probably be quite a story. The size of the iceberg is almost unimaginable: the A23a weighed almost a trillion tons and had an area of 3672 square kilometers. In recent weeks, however, huge chunks broke down and the ice giant shrunk tremendously – by about 400 square kilometers. "Water is far too warm" Res…
The world’s largest and longest-lasting iceberg is fragmenting into smaller pieces, to the point that it is no longer the largest piece of ice floating in the oceans. Iceberg, known as A23A, is unlikely to survive until the end of November and could face a sudden and spectacular collapse like an avalanche of ice at sea, explained Ted Scambos, an ice scientist at the University of Colorado. “It’s interesting to observe, certainly not unprecedente…
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