Video shows research ship’s “incredibly lucky” encounter with world’s largest iceberg as it drifts out of Antarctica
Britain’s polar research ship has crossed paths with the largest iceberg in the world — an “incredibly lucky” encounter that enabled scientists to collect seawater samples around the colossal berg as it drifts out of Antarctic waters, the British Antarctic Survey said Monday. The sighting came just days after scientists confirmed the iceberg was “on the move” for the first time in 37 years.
The RRS Sir David Attenborough, which is on its way to Antarctica for its first scientific mission, passed the mega iceberg known as A23a on Friday near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The survey released dramatic video taken by the ship’s crew, including drone footage that showed a pod of orcas swimming next to the massive iceberg.
The iceberg — equivalent to three times the size of New York City and more than twice the size of Greater London — had been grounded for more than three decades in the Weddell Sea after it split from the Antarctic’s Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. Before its calving in 1986, the colossal iceberg hosted a Soviet research station.
chunk about the size of two New York Cities — broke free. The Brunt Ice Shelf lies across the Weddell Sea from the site of the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. Last year, the Larsen C ice shelf, which was roughly the size of New York City and was long considered to be stable, collapsed into the sea.
The RRS Sir David Attenborough, named after the British naturalist, is on a 10-day science trip that’s part of an $11.3 million project to investigate how Antarctic ecosystems and sea ice drive global ocean cycles of carbon and nutrients.
The British Antarctic Survey said its findings will help improve understanding of how climate change is affecting the Southern Ocean and the organisms that live there.
Source: cbsnews.com