Tracking The Demise Of A Giant Antarctic Iceberg!

As soon as an iceberg is born, it starts to die!! Air thaws it from above, water melts the bottom of the iceberg away.

Scientists recently discovered such death throes for the world’s largest known icebergs.

In July of 2017, Iceberg A-68 broke from the Larsen C Ice shelf along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. At this time, it was the largest iceberg in the world and the 6th largest berg in recorded history! But the wind and water started demising it! In 3 and a half years, the berg completely broke apart and melted in the ocean environment. This occurred off the remote island of South Georgia!

“Icebergs are a source of cold fresh water and nutrients in the Southern Ocean,” said Anne Braakmann Folgmann, who is a doctoral candidate at the University of Leeds. “However, this is not completely studied especially for the largest icebergs” she adds on!

Braakmann Folgmann and more scientists plan to set out for a journey to A-68A to learn more about how the berg is decomposing and breaking apart.

Let’s hope that the mission succeeds and we are able to learn more about icebergs!

Author: Sri Nihal Tammana

Source: NASA Earth Observatory