You must have seen photos of huge icebergs on social media many times. These icebergs have been floating in the vast oceans for decades. But do you know where the world’s largest iceberg is and what is its name? Today we will tell you where the world’s largest iceberg came from and where is it heading.
ice floe
First of all, let us know what an iceberg is. Let us tell you that an iceberg is actually a piece of ice that has broken off from glaciers or shelf ice and is floating in open water. The iceberg we are talking about today is known as A23a. This is not an ordinary iceberg but the largest iceberg in the world.
How big is this iceberg
According to the BBC report, it broke away from the coast of Antarctica about 35 years ago and got stuck in the southern ocean while floating. But in 2020, it has set out on its journey again. According to the information, it is an iceberg of frozen ice weighing a trillion tons, which is moving forward in the sea. Dr. Katherine Walker, a glaciologist scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, explains that an iceberg is actually a huge piece of ice, which breaks off and scatters from the Earth’s southern ice sheet i.e. the icy sheet – Antarctica and the North Pole’s ice sheet i.e. the Greenland ice sheet.
In a conversation with BBC, Katherine Walker told that Antarctica is 10 times bigger than Greenland. Greenland was a part of the Laurentide Ice Sheet or icy area, which was spread across America and Europe during the Ice Age. But now it has melted and shrunk. However, the situation in Antarctica is somewhat different. Because the ice sheet of Antarctica is also thousands of years old. But it is laid on rock, due to which it is still intact and the increasing heat has not affected it much.
Antarctica’s icebergs are bigger
Let us tell you that there is another difference between Antarctica and Greenland, due to which the icebergs of Antarctica are bigger. According to Catherine Walker, the ice shelves of Greenland have been melting and shrinking. But when the edges of the ice shelf of Antarctica become thin, they break and start floating in the water. But these broken ice shelves keep melting and freezing and act as a fence around the ice sheet of Antarctica, due to which it remains protected from the warm water of the sea.
The world’s largest ice shelf is called the ‘Ross Ice Shelf’. Its front part which touches the sea is 200 meters thick, while the back part which connects to Antarctica is one kilometer deep. But there comes a time when it becomes thinner and breaks off from the ice shelf or ice rock. This is how an iceberg is born and it is also called ‘caving’.
Icebergs equal to cities
Dr. Katherine said that some icebergs are small, but some are bigger than a big city. However, sometimes some small icebergs become a danger for ships because they are not easily visible.
the world’s largest iceberg
According to Dr. Katherine, A23a is the world’s largest moving iceberg right now. According to the information, it is square and spreads up to 60 kilometers in both directions. Not only this, it is about 300 meters thick, 10 percent of which is above the water surface. At the same time, about 90 percent of the iceberg floats below the water surface. Let us tell you that A23a is thousands of times bigger than the iceberg that collided with the Titanic ship and sank.
What is the speed of the moving iceberg?
Dr. Oliver Marsh told the BBC that icebergs from Antarctica flow with the sea currents and reach the Weddell Sea. After which, they pass through an area to the east of the Antarctica Peninsula, which we call Iceberg Alley, i.e. the trail of icebergs. According to the information, A23a is currently traveling at a speed of one to two kilometers per day. Its speed depends on the wind, sea current and weather.