As feared, the world's largest iceberg, slowly drifting north from Antarctica, appears to be on a collision course with the island of South Georgia. The iceberg, officially dubbed A23a, is making a beeline for the island home to colonies of King penguins and millions of elephant and fur seals at risk of being blocked in. As the BBC reports, "countless birds and seals" have died on South Georgia's shores when other giant icebergs collided with the island, preventing the animals from reaching the ocean to feed. Though slowly melting as it reaches warmer waters, A23a remains truly massive, measuring about 1,351 square miles—as expansive as South Georgia itself—with towering cliffs taller than the Empire State Building.
Scientists and sailors are tracking A23a's daily movements using satellite imagery. Some 170 miles from South Georgia at present, the iceberg is already shedding large slabs of ice and could split into larger sections "any day," the BBC reports. There are fears the iceberg will ground on the continental shelf around the island, as another iceberg did in 2004, blocking penguin chicks and seal pups from feeding grounds, per the London Standard. Another iceberg, A76, narrowly avoided grounding in 2023, but chunks of it remain in surrounding waters, causing headaches for sailors. "Impacts are to be expected for both fisheries and wildlife," Mark Belchier, a marine ecologist who advises the government, tells the BBC. Still, "both have a great capacity to adapt." (More icebergs stories.)
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