World’s largest iceberg headed toward equally sized British island in South Atlantic

A massive iceberg, the world’s largest at about a trillion tons, is heading toward South Georgia Island, a British territory in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.

Known as A68-A, it’s what’s left of an even bigger ice chunk that broke off the Antarctic shelf known as Larsen C in 2017, according to Global News Canada. It has been on the move ever since.

Its potential target is part of the South Sandwich Islands, about a thousand miles east of the Falklands off South America.

The 93-by-30-mile berg is almost as big as the island it may be about to hit, according to BBC News.

If it runs aground and gets anchored offshore, it could wreak havoc on a wildlife haven famous for its penguin and seal populations, BBC News said. The iceberg threatens to lodge right in the path of their foraging routes, which would block their attempts to feed their young – not to mention the sea-floor creatures that would be crushed under its weight.

It could also damage fisheries.

Though it seems poised to hit land, that is not certain. Ocean currents could yet spin it back out toward open water.

“Whether it grounds and gets stuck or drifts past the island is in the balance,” said Peter Fretwell, remote-sensing and mapping specialist for the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement. “The currents should take it on what looks like a strange loop around the south end of South Georgia, before then spinning it along the edge of the continental shelf and back off to the northwest. But it’s very difficult to say precisely what will happen.”

If it passes South Georgia and keeps going north, it could very well break up in warmer waters, with wave action finishing the job, BAS remote sensing manager Andrew Fleming said in the statement.