The world’s largest iceberg may be on track to collide with Penguin Island in Antarctica: ‘Game of Thrones’

the The largest iceberg in the world – The area – three times the size of New York City – could drift towards a remote island as a scientist warns it risks disrupting the feeding of penguins and baby seals.

The giant ice wall is moving Slowly from Antarctica On a potential collision course with Georgia South, A.J Breeding ground for wildlife In the South Atlantic Ocean.

Satellite images suggest that unlike previous “megamountains”, this rogue object did not break up into smaller pieces as it passed through the Southern Ocean, Andrew Myers, a physical oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey, told AFP on Friday.

He said that predicting its exact path is difficult, but prevailing currents indicate that the giant will reach the shallow continental shelf around South Georgia within two to four weeks.

But what might happen next is anyone’s guess, he said.

It could avoid the continental shelf and move into open waters outside South Georgia, a British overseas territory located about 870 miles east of the Falkland Islands.

Or it can hit the sloping bottom and remain stuck for months or break into pieces.

This scenario could seriously hamper seals and penguins trying to feed and raise their young on the island, Myers said. the Island hosts 1.3 million pairs of Chinstrap penguins – one of the largest colonies in the world – about 5 million seals, and 65 million breeding birds.

“Icebergs have settled there in the past, causing significant mortality of penguin and seal pups,” he said.

At approximately 1,550 square miles across, it is the world’s largest and oldest iceberg, known as A23aThe massive iceberg broke off from the Antarctic shelf in 1986. Before it broke off in 1986, the massive iceberg hosted a Soviet research station. Falley

It was trapped for more than 30 years before finally being freed in 2020, its lumbering journey north sometimes delayed by ocean forces that kept it spinning in place. In 2023, the British Antarctic Survey published a record number Time lapse satellite imagesShows the movement of the iceberg.

The “Game of Thrones” iceberg.

Myers – who came face-to-face with the iceberg while leading a science mission in late 2023 – described a “huge white cliff 40 or 50 meters high extending from horizon to horizon.”

“It’s like this white wall. It’s actually more like Game of Thrones,” he added, referring to the dark fantasy series.

A23a followed almost the same path as previous massive icebergs, passing the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula across the Weddell Sea along a route called “Iceberg Alley”. This is the same stream of water that famous explorer Ernest Shackleton used in 1916 to escape Antarctica after losing his ship Endurance. Legendary The shipwreck was discovered Off the coast of Antarctica in 2022.

This huge mass of fresh water weighs just under a trillion tons, and was transported by the world’s strongest ocean “jet stream” – the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Raul Cordero of the University of Santiago in Chile, who is also part of the National Committee for Antarctic Research, said he was confident the iceberg would bypass South Georgia.

“The island acts as an obstacle to ocean currents and therefore usually diverts water long before it reaches the island,” he said.

He added: “This iceberg is moved by the water flow, so the chances of it colliding are not that great,” although it is possible that it could be cut off.

Another scientist, glaciologist Soledad Terante, who is currently on an Argentine Antarctic expedition, said icebergs like A23a “are so deep that before reaching an island or mainland they generally get stuck” on the sea floor.

It’s summer in South Georgia, and the penguins and seals residing along its southern coast forage in the cold waters to bring food to fatten their young.

“If the iceberg stops there, it will either block where it feeds, or it will have to turn around,” Myers said.

“This burns a huge amount of extra energy for them, so there is less energy for the young and the chicks, which leads to increased mortality.”

He added that South Georgia’s seal and penguin populations were already having a “bad season” with the bird flu outbreak, “and this (the iceberg) is going to make it much worse.”

As A23a eventually dissolves, it could replenish the water with nutrients that encourage the growth of phytoplankton, feed whales and other species, and allow scientists to study how these flowers absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

While icebergs are a natural phenomenon, Myers said the rate of their loss from Antarctica is increasing, likely due to climate change caused by human activity.

In January 2023, a huge piece of the Bronte Ice Shelf in Antarctica – a A piece the size of two New York cities – Get free. The Brant Ice Shelf lies across the Weddell Sea from the site of the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. In 2022, the Larsen C ice shelf — which was roughly the size of New York City and was considered stable for a long time — He collapsed into the sea.