A massive Antarctic iceberg that is moving a collision course towards South Georgia Island, causing it to shift direction and lose a major chunk of mass, a scientist tracking its journey said on Friday. The iceberg, dubbed A68a, approached the western shelf edge of the south Atlantic island this week, due to the strong currents, it pivot nearly 180 degrees, according to Geraint Tarling, a biological oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey.
"You can almost imagine it as a handbrake turn for the iceberg because the currents were so strong," Tarling said. That`s when the iceberg appeared to clip the shelf edge, and caused a large piece to break apart. That new piece is an iceberg in its own right and already has a name 'A68d'. The massive iceburg is under continouus careful watch by the Team of Scientists, last measured at 4,200-square-kilometers, as it move on a fast-track current towards the island. The berg which is close to the wildlife rich island, worries researchers as it may grind into the seabed, disrupting underwater ecosystems and may block penguins making their way into the sea for food.
As of friday, A68a was about 50 Kilometres from the island's west coast. But is appearing to head southeast which means berg is to cause an environmental disaster for local wildlife along the island`s eastern coast rather than the southwest. The new smaller berg, A68d, is moving further away from the original berg. An estimate of A68d`s size was not yet available and the researchers don`t yet know if it will follow the same path, or become lodged somewhere else on the shelf. But they predict some chunks could break away from A68a as it approached the island, and more breakage is possible. To be noted, A68a broke off from the Antarctic peninsula in 2017.
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