Giant iceberg released 152 billion tonnes of freshwater into the sea
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A published study reveals that a giant iceberg that detached from Antarctica in 2017 released an estimated total of 152 billion tonnes of nutrient-rich freshwater into the sea.
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Dubbed A-68, the iceberg released an estimated total of 152 billion tonnes of nutrient-rich freshwater into the sea.
A giant iceberg that detached from Antarctica in 2017 released the equivalent of 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of freshwater as it melted, according to research published Thursday, raising questions over the impact on the marine ecosystem.
The monstrous iceberg was twice the size of Luxembourg when it separated from the Larsen ice shelf, which has warmed faster than any other part of Earth's southernmost continent.
At 5,719 square kilometers (2,200 square miles) it was the biggest iceberg on Earth when it formed and the sixth-largest on record, according to the British Antarctic Survey.
Floating danger
For two years, the trillion-tonne giant known as A-68, floated in the cold waters of the Weddell Sea before traveling northwards and threatening the British island of South Georgia, some 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from its starting point.
The iceberg came dangerously close to the island in late 2020, raising fears that it would become stuck on the seabed, block ocean currents and obstruct the passage of thousands of penguins and seals.
But the new study found that the iceberg melted quickly once in the warmer region around South Georgia and had already lost a significant amount of its bulk by the time it reached shallower waters.
152 billion tonnes of nutrient-rich freshwater
Researchers who tracked its journey via satellites calculated that from late 2020 until it melted away in 2021, A-68 released an estimated total of 152 billion tonnes of nutrient-rich freshwater into the sea.
"The next thing we want to learn is whether it had a positive or negative impact on the ecosystem" around South Georgia, said Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, a researcher at the Center for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), who led the research published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.
Redrawing planet's coastlines
Icebergs form when chunks of ice break off from ice shelves or glaciers and begin to float in open water.
Their formation is part of a natural process, which can be accelerated by warming air and ocean temperatures due to human-caused climate change.
Earth's average surface temperature has gone up by one degree Celsius since the 19th century, enough to increase the intensity of droughts, heatwaves, and tropical cyclones.
But the air over Antarctica has warmed more than twice that much.
Ice sheets atop Greenland and West Antarctic hold enough frozen water to lift oceans a dozen meters (40 feet), drowning cities and redrawing the planet's coastlines.
