We have already told you about A23a, the largest iceberg in the world, stuck on the seabed of Weddell since 1986 and which in 2023 has set off in motion, before stuck again at the beginning of 2024 and return free in December of the same year.
Now a new photo of NASA, which you can admire in great detail here, shows that A23a began to split in thousands of “small” pieces, and in a few months it could completely disappear.
In a thousand pieces (literally). At the moment, A23a has an area of 3,100 km2which is quickly decreasing as the iceberg (or “megaberg”, as it has been defined) loses pieces: in recent months, since it has been detached from the seabed again and has started to navigate to north again, has lost about 520 km2 surfacewhich now wander in the Antarctic in the form of ice fragments.
Fragments as big as Milan. “Fragments” is actually the wrong term: it is true that some of the pieces of A23a measure a few meters, but there are several that exceed the km long, and they will be kept under control because they could represent a risk for ships that pass in the area. The largest pieceat the moment, has an area of 130 km2: To make a comparison, the city of Milan occupies 180.
A danger to the ecosystem. The largest concern relating to A23a is what will happen to the nearby island of South Georgia, uninhabited by humans but populated by millions of animals: Foche, sea birds and also 2 million real penguins – One of the largest colonies in the world. Already the presence of the iceberg trapped on the seabed was a problem, because it forced the penguins to circumvent it to reach the hunting areas, a long and tiring operation. We do not know if and what damage the individual pieces could do the ecosystem: There are also those who argue that the disintegration of A23a could bring benefits, releasing large quantities of nutrients in the ocean.
The slow disappearance of A23a. However, the fate of the largest iceberg in the world seems to be marked: at the rhythm that is disintegrating, A23a could definitively disappear within a few months (or even year, according to the most pessimistic estimates). Certainly in the coming months he will lose the title of “largest iceberg in the world”: at the moment it is only 31 km2 larger than the second classified, D15a, which should soon overcome it.
