Giant iceberg advances on island: millions of animals threatened
Millions of seals and penguins are threatened by a very large iceberg drifting toward their remote island in the South Atlantic.
The giant iceberg, named A23a, is the world's largest iceberg ever to break loose from Antarctica. A23a broke off from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in Antarctica in 1986, but soon got stuck again in the Weddell Sea. In 2020, the ice mass broke free again, so now it appears to be heading toward South Georgia. The iceberg is nearly 3,500 square kilometers in size and 400 meters thick in some places, according to the most recent satellite photo. It is said to contain nearly a trillion tons of frozen water. It was located Wednesday about 280 kilometers from South Georgia, an island belonging to Britain in the South Atlantic Ocean. Millions of seals, penguins and seabirds search for food in and around that island, so the collision with the iceberg could have far-reaching consequences for all these animals.
(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: CNN/Illustration picture: Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash)