World’s biggest iceberg on collision path with South Georgia
The world's biggest iceberg, known as A68A, is bearing down on the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia
The world’s largest iceberg A-68A, is on a collision course with South Georgia. The island is a breeding ground for penguins and seals and scientists worry the iceberg could destroy wildlife since it could be there for up to 10 years.
Threat to penguins and seals
The world’s biggest iceberg, known as A68A, is bearing down on the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia. The Antarctic ice giant is a similar size to the South Atlantic island, and there’s a strong possibility the berg could now ground and anchor itself offshore of the wildlife haven. If that happens, it poses a grave threat to local penguins and seals.
The animals’ normal foraging routes could be blocked, preventing them from feeding their young properly. And it goes without saying that all creatures living on the seafloor would be crushed where A68a touched down – a disturbance that would take a very long time to reverse. The British Overseas Territory is something of a graveyard for Antarctica’s greatest icebergs.
Roughly the size of the English county of Somerset (4,200 sq km), the berg weighs hundreds of billions of tonnes. But its relative thinness (a submerged depth of perhaps 200m or less) means it has the potential to drift right up to South Georgia’s coast before anchoring.
When the colossus A38 grounded at South Georgia in 2004, countless dead penguin chicks and seal pups were found on local beaches.
The BAS researcher is in the process of trying to organise the resources to study A68 a at South Georgia, should it do its worst and ground in one of the key productive areas for wildlife and the local fishing industry.
Multi-faceted impact
The potential impacts are multi-faceted – and not all negative, researchers stress. For example, icebergs bring with them enormous quantities of dust that will fertilise the ocean plankton around them, and this benefit will then cascade up the food chain.
Although satellite imagery suggests A68a is on a direct path for South Georgia, it might yet escape capture. Anything is possible, says BAS remote-sensing and mapping specialist Dr Peter Fretwell.
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