World
India
The world’s largest iceberg, which is about twice the size of Greater London, has run aground in waters off a remote UK island and now appears to be stuck, BBC reported.
So, what does it mean for the life cycle in the area?
According to experts, the iceberg will likely start breaking up on the southwest shores of the island of South Georgia, which is home to millions of penguins and seals.
While fishermen in the area fear they will be “forced to battle with vast chunks of ice,” scientists in Antarctica, however, say that with the melting of ice, huge amounts of nutrients trapped inside the iceberg “could create an explosion of life” in the ocean.
“It’s like dropping a nutrient bomb into the middle of an empty desert,” Professor Nadine Johnston from British Antarctic Survey told the British broadcaster.
Meanwhile, an ecologist who advises the region’s government has expressed concerns over the possible meltdown of the gigantic iceberg posing a hazard to vessels.
“If it breaks up, the resulting icebergs are likely to present a hazard to vessels as they move in the local currents and could restrict vessels’ access to local fishing grounds,” ecologist Mark Belchier told BBC.
The 300-meter-tall ice colossus, which struck the shallow shelf of the continent about 80 km from land on Saturday, now appears to be firmly lodged, the report said, adding that it is showing advancing signs of decay.
Notably, the iceberg broke away from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in 1986, calved and grounded on the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea floor almost immediately.
“The future of all icebergs is that they will die. It’s very surprising to see that A23a has lasted this long and only lost about a quarter of its area,” Professor Huw Griffiths told the network from the Sir David Attenborough polar research ship currently in Antarctica.
Professor Andrew Meijers from British Antarctic Survey, however, expressed skepticism as he suggested, “It’s probably going to stay more or less where it is, until chunks break off.”
Once 3,900 square kilometers in size, the iceberg has now reportedly shrunk to an estimated 3,234 sq km as it continues to shed huge amounts of water.
Where the ice is touching the shelf, there are thousands of tiny creatures like coral, sea slugs and sponge, and their entire universe will be “bulldozed by a massive slab of ice scraping along the sea floor”, Professor Griffiths lamented while speaking to the publication.
While it is “catastrophic in the short-term” for these species, it is a natural part of the life cycle in the region, Professor Griffiths further said.
“Where it is destroying something in one place, it’s providing nutrients and food in other places,” he told BBC.
The ice could block harbours or disrupt sailing when the fishing season starts in April, the report said.
The scientists working in Antarctica, however, have also discovered some incredible contributions that icebergs make to ocean life.
Explaining how particles and nutrients from around the world get trapped into the ice, which is then slowly released into the ocean, Professor Griffiths told the British broadcaster that without ice, “we wouldn’t have these ecosystems”.
“They are some of the most productive in the world, and support huge numbers of species and individual animals, and feed the biggest animals in the world like the blue whale”.
ALSO READ: Pause in US Military Aid To Ukraine Makes Peace ‘More Distant’, Says France
