What happens when the world's biggest iceberg crashes into an island? Scientists are ringing the alarm bells that very scenario may just play out. Right now, the giant chunk of ice is on a collision course with a remote British island.
I say chunk but what I should mean is behemoth. Scientists have dubbed A23a a "megaberg." It measures more than 1,540 miles wide. That's the size of a city. Right now, the giant iceberg is currently drifting through the Southern Ocean after breaking free. Pieces of ice have splintered off as the giant megaberg heads for South Georgia.
The British island is home to thousands of seals and penguins, making this a potential ecological disaster. It's just 173 miles from the island. Simon Wallace, captain of a South Georgia government vessel, theorizes that the iceberg could smash into pieces. Think about a bunch of smaller icebergs smashed into every direction.
Iceberg On Collision Course
Speaking to BBC News, Wallace said, "Icebergs are inherently dangerous. I would be extraordinarily happy if it just completely missed us." It's not the first time something like this happened. In 2020, A76 almost grounded near South Georgia. It still left behind a lot of dangerous slabs of ice.
"Those pieces basically cover the island - we have to work our way through it," Wallace said.
Meanwhile, Dr Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), weighed in on the ice mass potentially striking South Georgia.
"The iceberg, at least in satellite images, appears to be maintaining its structure and has not yet broken up into smaller chunks, as previous "megabergs" have done. It is presently in a meander of the current and not moving directly towards the island, but our understanding of the currents suggest that it is likely to again move towards the island soon," Meijers said.
He continued, "The current follows the shallow continental shelf around the island to the southeast, but the question is whether the berg will follow this out into the open South Atlantic, or run up onto the shelf and become stuck for some time. If this happens it could seriously impede access to feeding grounds for the wildlife - seals and penguins mostly - that breed on the island."
