Penguins have been spared after the mammoth iceberg split into smaller pieces

Then there was the issue of penguins.

Environmentalists feared that the island’s huge king and gentoo penguin colonies would have to make large detours to reach their usual hunting grounds, with serious consequences for the chicks waiting on land.

Near Miss

A huge iceberg was about to sweep the island of South Georgia and its fragile habitat before breaking with strong currents in the South Atlantic.

SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND (United Kingdom)

SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND (United Kingdom)

SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND (United Kingdom)

A huge iceberg was about to sweep the island of South Georgia and its fragile habitat before breaking with strong currents in the South Atlantic.

SOUTH GEORGIA ISLAND (United Kingdom)

Source: British Antarctic Survey derived from Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite imagery

Instead, more than three years after leaving the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica, about 930 miles south, warmer waters and a couple of currents have broken the monstrous in a dozen pieces, now known as A68b, A68c, & c. US National Ice Center Designation System. They are now drifting north, where they could be a bigger problem for humans.

“As it breaks, thousands of smaller icebergs have the potential to clog the area’s navigation lanes, especially as they disperse,” said Andrew Fleming, head of remote sensing at the British Antarctic Survey. which has been following the journey of the A68a northward images provided by the European Space Agency and flyovers of the British Royal Air Force.

The largest section, still called the A68a, is 330 square miles, larger than New York City, with several nearly equal pieces. The rupture of the A68a means that the largest iceberg is now the A23a, which left Antarctica in 1986 but has remained ashore at the bottom of the sea.

A team from the British Antarctic Survey is heading to the Falkland Islands to assess the impact of icebergs on the area’s marine ecology and get an idea of ​​what to expect if the Antarctic ice shelf clears more giant bergs like a global. temperatures rise.

“Everyone is making every stop for this to happen,” said oceanographer and team leader Povl Abrahamsen, aboard RRS James Cook, who will arrive at the icebergs in mid-February.

Navigating a group of huge icebergs can be a difficult task. In addition to the banks themselves, particularly the parts below the surface, there are melting ice cascades and the possibility of breaking more chunks causing large waves. To mitigate the risk, the mission includes two underwater robotic gliders to take samples that will allow the team to have a better idea of ​​the type of impact such a large mass of icebergs has on ocean conditions in southern South Georgia. one of the biologically richest places on the planet and one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.

The biggest concern is how melting shores can disrupt the ocean’s food chain. An influx of cold fresh water could kill microscopic marine organisms called phytoplankton, starve the krill that feed on them, and deplete populations of fish, seals, penguins, and whales.

The area is so abundant in marine life that Norwegian whalers established a whaling station in South Georgia in the early 20th century, which has since been abandoned.

Today there are no permanent residents on the island, just a rotating team of environmentalists and other scientists who monitor fishing stocks and other wildlife, including albatrosses and seals.

However, the island is becoming increasingly important as a base from which to control the number of icebergs that shed the Antarctic ice sheet and head north toward warmer waters.

Although icebergs have always broken or broken the ice sheet, the concern is that a warming climate will flatten it like a melting snow cone, and drive more ice to the edge of the continent, where it will eventually will boot.

In a study published earlier this week, two geophysicists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark warned that climate change could cause ocean levels to rise faster than initially feared, increasing the risk of flooding in the United States. heavily populated coastal regions.

Aslak Grinsted and Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen looked for data dating back several centuries and found that ocean levels could rise by more than a meter if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, more than current projections adopted by the Group Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and half a meter if temperatures rise only half a degree Celsius.

Write to James Hookway to [email protected]