look. Recent satellite images show that the mountain is rapidly drifting across the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula
The ice mass could crush animals living on the island and on the sea floor, and their access to food could be cut off. According to scientists, the iceberg could also drift towards South Africa, where it could disrupt shipping. “An iceberg of this size has the potential to remain in the Southern Ocean for some time even though it is much warmer,” Oliver Marsh, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters.
A23a, that’s the name of the ice floe, has an area of 4,000 square kilometers – almost twice the size of the Flemish province of Brabant. Plus, this massive thing weighs a trillion — that’s 1 with 12 zeros — tons and is 400 meters thick. Marsh said seeing an iceberg of this size moving is rare. It is currently unclear why the mountain is drifting away from Antarctica and increasing its speed.
The floe broke away from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf on Antarctica’s Weddell Sea in 1986. There was a Soviet research station on the iceberg at the time. It remained stuck at the bottom of the ocean, where it formed an ice island for more than thirty years. Three years ago the crowds started moving again. Since then, scientists have observed A23a drifting faster and faster northward.
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