An iceberg the size of a city leaves Antarctic waters
It’s huge. It’s freezing. And it moves.
It’s an iceberg called A23a. Wait, that’s what they call it? Come on, we can do better.
It’s Superberg!
For more than 100 years, no iceberg has been more famous than the one that sank the Titanic and abruptly ended Rose and Jack’s fictional romance. But that was before a giant mountain started lurching northward from Antarctica.
Where is it going? How did this happen? What does it all mean? You have questions, we have answers.
Where does this iceberg come from?
The iceberg initially broke away from Antarctica – a process known as calving – in 1986. But it didn’t get far and soon became stuck in the Weddell Sea, south of South America.
That changed in 2020, when things started moving again. He is now chugging along and is about to pass the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and leave Antarctic waters.
Scientists say it is currently the largest iceberg in the world with an area of 1,500 square kilometers. That’s about five times the land area of New York City. It is also about 400 meters thick, approximately equal to the height of the Empire State Building.
It’s probably heading towards ‘Iceberg Alley’.
Most likely, the mountain will head to a part of the Southern Ocean known as Iceberg Alley, where mountains like to congregate. So don’t expect it to cruise along Copacabana Beach or the Côte d’Azur.
Despite what Hollywood has taught you, A23a will not tear through populated areas, nor will it become sentient due to an ancient curse and seek revenge for humanity’s mistreatment of polar bears.
Instead, it will eventually follow the path of old snow or the ice in your gin and tonic, breaking into smaller pieces and melting. But due to its enormous size, it will take years before it disappears into the sea. (An earlier iceberg, declared the largest in the world at the time, lasted about two decades break up.)
Calving is a natural process, but climate change may be a factor.
As the ice begins to leave Antarctica, it’s hard not to think about climate change and worry about a fleet of huge mountains bent on destruction that will enter the Atlantic Ocean in the coming years.
“The climate is changing and affecting the way ice shelves melt,” said Indrani Das, an associate professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and a glaciologist, an expert on snow and ice. “Ice shelves are losing mass because the ocean is warming. Calving is a natural process, but natural calving can be promoted by the climate.”
But because this particular iceberg calved in 1986, she said, it would break loose anyway. And that is not automatically a bad thing.
“An ice shelf losing its mass is a natural process,” she says. “If it doesn’t calve, it keeps growing. The ice shelf must be in balance.”
Do we really have to joke about this?
Well, maybe not. There are risks associated with Superberg’s journey.
“Icebergs are dangerous if they enter a shipping lane,” said Dr. Badger. “It could isolate a colony of penguins. We will know as we follow the trajectory.”
But she added: “I like to see the positive sides of things. As icebergs melt, they provide fresh water and nutrients to the ocean. Icebergs are beautiful and interesting.”
As long as you’re not Jack Dawson or an isolated penguin.