Antarctic Giant Breaks Free: Iceberg A23a Embarks on an Oceanic Odyssey
TS2 SPACENov 24, 2023
The British Antarctic Survey reports that one of the biggest icebergs in the world is floating outside of Antarctic waters, after being anchored there for more than thirty years.
In 1986, the iceberg known as A23a broke off from the Filchner Ice Shelf in the Antarctic. While traveling it became attached lodged into the seabed of the Weddell Sea and has lingered for many years, but it recently began drifting again.
Such a massive iceberg as the A23a could pose extensive risks to human and animal species alike. Apart from becoming a potential challenge to the shipping lanes it might, as some have suggested, pose a calamity for the local wildlife in terms of access to food.
The scientific community has been categorical — this iceberg does not pose a threat to people, and even though it may become an issue for wildlife, A23a's movement is part of cyclical environmental developments in the region so it is unlikely to go too far in disrupting feeding or reproduction cycles.
There is a 50% chance that sea level rise will be at least 591 millimeters by 2100, according to the Metaculus prediction community.