World's largest iceberg, A23a, is disintegrating into thousands of pieces alongside penguin refuge — Earth from space
- NASA captured satellite images on May 3, 2025, showing the world's largest iceberg, A23a, breaking apart near South Georgia island.
- A23a broke away from Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986 and stayed stuck on the Weddell Sea floor for more than thirty years before it began drifting toward South Georgia.
- Edge wasting has reduced A23a's area by about 200 square miles since March 2025, creating thousands of smaller pieces, including a 50-square-mile fragment named A23c.
- Jan Lieser of the Antarctic Meteorological Service noted that A23a’s extended confinement within a relatively small area was highly unusual compared to other icebergs recorded.
- As A23a continues disintegrating near the penguin-rich South Georgia, its size title may soon end, possibly affecting the local ecosystem and maritime navigation.
24 Articles
24 Articles
The Largest Iceberg on Earth Is Stuck
The world’s largest iceberg has been through a lot. Born in 1986, when it broke off from Antarctica, it has since traveled the rough seas of the Drake Passage, got trapped spinning in circles in an ocean gyre, and now seems to be stuck on a shallow shelf just off the coast of South Georgia in the Atlantic Ocean. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . And a new satellite image of the massive iceberg shows that in its …
World's largest iceberg, A23a, is disintegrating into thousands of pieces alongside penguin refuge — Earth from space
A new satellite photo has revealed that the "megaberg," A23a, is beginning to break apart, spawning thousands of smaller ice chunks around the Antarctic island of South Georgia.
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