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Eighteen months of satellite imagery shows the A68 iceberg, currently the largest iceberg in the world (and the sixth largest ever), drifting 150 km north to the currents of the South Atlantic Ocean.
Credit: A. Luckman / University of Swansea / European Space Agency
They grow so fast. The iceberg called A68 – currently the largest iceberg in the world, weighing about 1 trillion tons (1 trillion metric tons) – was screwed on July 12, 2017, two years ago, near the platform. ice form Larsen from Antarctica.
What has this gigantic frozen baby done since his release? Mostly just spinning.
As you can see in this impressive video taken in the last 18 months by the Sentinel-1 satellites of the European Space Agency and shared today by glaciologist Adrian Luckman, the giant glacier is one of the most important areas in the world. is progressively away from its pack ice to the north about 250 km from where it started. According to Luckman, this is an impressive mobility for arguably the largest free-motion object on Earth. [Images of Melt: Earth’s Vanishing Ice]
"At 160 km long and just a few hundred meters thick, the image format of the Iceberg A68 looks more like a credit card than a typical iceberg imagined." ", wrote Luckman, a professor at the University of Swansea, UK, on his website. "It is all the more surprising that the Iceberg A68, despite its grounding on the seabed several times, remains about the same shape as it had when." it evaporated two years ago. "
Alas, every step forward is a step away from home – and towards a certain loss. While the A68 iceberg continues to spread in a current called Weddell Gyre (named after the Weddell Sea in Antarctica), it is getting closer and closer to the Atlantic Ocean's attraction South, where it will be gently swept to the north, in warmer conditions.
Many icebergs that find themselves on this path (part of an oceanic transportation belt known as "iceberg alley," according to BBC News) end up stopping abruptly near the iceberg. South Georgia Island, a distant British overseas territory located approximately 1,000 km (1,600 km) north of Antarctica. Icebergs similar in size to A68 drifted for 5 years before touching the mainland, splitting into ever smaller pieces.
Other icebergs drift further north to eventually melt near South America.
While the fate of the A68 depends largely on the vagaries of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists will continue to monitor the progress of the latter from space, as long as they can. . Visually, it may not be as interesting as a square iceberg or an iceberg coffin, but the A68 remains our iceberg – and we'll be proud of it, no matter what its death.
Originally published on Science live.
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