Giant iceberg is already 75 km from South Georgia and no one is viewing Argentina

he huge iceberg A68a, which on December 9 was 150 kilometers from South Georgia Island and 1500 kilometers from the Falklands, is already less than 75 kilometers off Georgia.

It broke away from Antarctica to mid 2017 and since then it has been floating aimlessly. It has been drifting in the Weddell Sea for two years, but now you can see it cracking thanks to photos taken by the Royal Air Force (RAF).

The main voice in studying and monitoring the iceberg is held by the British. In fact, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) assumes that will wreak havoc on the rich marine ecosystem of the South Atlantic.

The IBC will investigate the impact that melting ice will have on fresh water in an area that is home to colonies of penguins, seals, whales and a huge source of plankton.

It is even one of the most exploited fishing grounds in the world.
At the end of January will leave the Falklands the NOC RRS James Cook research vessel, carrying robotic underwater gliders to collect samples from the area. The ship and researchers will spend nearly four months “collecting measurements of the salinity, temperature and chlorophyll of seawater on opposite sides of the iceberg,” says Europa Press. They will also measure the level of plankton in the water to do a comparative oceanographic study with wildlife in South Georgia and near Bird Island.
The waters of the South Atlantic surrounding the Falkland Islands and South Georgia are one of the places biologically richer of the planet.

It has more marine species described than the Galapagos Islands, and it is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.

The seabed is home to sponges, stars, worms and sea urchins. “These communities store large amounts of carbon in their body tissues and also in the sediments that surround them. If the iceberg destroys them in its path, these species release the carbon stored in the water and potentially in the atmosphere. It would be an iadditional negative impactGeraint Tarling, an environmentalist with the British Antarctic Survey, explained to reporters.
If the iceberg ends up on the island – which is likely – it will pose a risk to penguins and seals during the breeding season. It will also prevent aquatic spices from entering the water in search of their food.

“However, not all of the impacts along the iceberg’s path are negative. spits out huge amounts of mineral dust that fertilizes ocean plankton, and it will benefit the food chain. “

As of March 2016, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) had submitted 77 documents to United Nations agencies to geologically and scientifically approve Argentina’s request on the seabed beyond 200 miles (370.4 kilometers) from our Platform. continental. This demand to which any state has access if it deems it fair, is technically called “the outer edge of the continental margin”.
This delimitation proposal would add a total of 1,782,000 km2 of platform that extends beyond 200 nautical miles.
To date, the agency has only reviewed 864 of the 6,336 fixed points submitted for review (14%). It did not examine or note which fixed points are controversial (Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) and which correspond to Antarctica.
Either way, the CLCS has accepted the existence of a “sovereignty dispute” over the Malvinas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, a reality the UK generally claims to ignore.
If the territory is in dispute, we do not understand why the investigation and the decisions that are taken, they are only in the hands of the British.
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