Luckily, there are unlikely to be any Titanic-like scenes on the horizon. But certainly the news that the world’s largest iceberg has started moving again is already evoking catastrophic, cinematic or even environmental images that, ultimately, may be completely unfounded. Yes, because on the one hand there is danger […]
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Luckily, there are unlikely to be any Titanic-like scenes on the horizon. But certainly the news that the largest iceberg “The world has started moving again” already conjures up catastrophic, cinematic or even environmental images that, ultimately, could be completely unfounded. Yes, because if, on the one hand, the risk of a new maritime disaster seems very low, even the ecological doubts that such an event could cause, given the global warming situation, do not necessarily need to be proven. Starting from what is known: the largest iceberg in the world it is in motion after being stuck for a while 30 years. The iceberg, called A23abroke away from the Antarctic coast in 2000 1986but quickly ran aground Weddell Seaand essentially becomes an island made of ice. With an area of almost 4,000 kilometers The A23a is a true colossus in terms of square shape and is impressive not only because of its width. This ice layer is about 400 meters thick.
The first new movements for the A23a date back to 2017 2020 But only in recent months has it registered a significant acceleration, driven by winds and currents, and is now crossing the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Like most icebergs in the Weddell sector, A23a will almost certainly be thrown into the depths Antarctic Circumpolar Currentwhich will hurl it towards the South Atlantic on a path known as “Iceberg Alley“. It is not yet entirely clear what actually led to the recent movements of A23a and, above all, it is not clear whether and to what extent there is an influence of the increase in global temperatures. What is known is that in the end, all icebergs, no matter how large, are usually destined to melt and die out. And this cycle has a very important function in the terrestrial ecosystem complex: when these large icebergs melt, they actually release this Mineral powder which was embedded in their ice when they were part of the glaciers that scraped away the bedrock of Antarctica. This dust is a source of nutrients for organisms that form the basis of the ocean food chain. It goes without saying that scientists will be closely following A23a’s progress and that we will likely hear more news about this ice giant’s events in the near future.
by Gianmarco Pondrano Altavilla