Picture: Richard Sidey/Eyos Expeditions
The world’s largest iceberg has run aground off the remote British island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic.
The iceberg – known as A23a – broke away from the Antarctic ice shelf in 1986.
It has been stuck on the sea bed for more than 30 years.
After breaking loose, for the last five years it has headed towards South Georgia.
Now A23a – twice the size of Greater London and weighing a trillion tonnes – is stuck again.
It has beached in shallow waters on the continental shelf, about 50 miles from the coast of South Georgia.
Scientists at first feared the iceberg breaking up could have a negative impact on the local wildlife.
Now they think it will release huge amounts of nutrients to benefit creatures living on land and in the ocean.
Professor Nadine Johnston, from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said:
“It’s like dropping a nutrient bomb into the middle of an empty desert
“The release of nutrients will result in phytoplankton blooms appearing around the iceberg – so vast that they will be seen from space.
And Dr Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at the BAS, said:
“It is unlikely that South Georgia’s populations of seals and penguins are impacted by the iceberg.
“Potentially, it could interrupt their pathway to feeding sites and force the adults to expend more energy to travel around it.
“This could reduce the amount of food coming back to pups and chicks on the island and so increase mortality.
“However, there could be an upside too.
“Nutrients stirred up by the grounding and from its melt may boost food availability for the whole regional ecosystem, including for penguins and seals.”
The iceberg could present dangers, however, for commercial fishing boats.
“As the berg breaks into smaller pieces, this might make fishing operations in the area both more difficult and potentially hazardous.
“(In the past), large bergs have made some regions more or less off-limits for fishing operations for some time due to the number of smaller – yet often more dangerous – bergy bits.”
