This iceberg was bigger than Goa and nearly crashed into a penguin colony

Once it started moving in 2022, A23a didn’t stop. The iceberg drifted more than 2,300 kilometres through Antarctic waters and into the South Atlantic, with satellites tracking almost every stage of its journey.

There was even a point when experts worried it might crash into South Georgia Island, a place famous for its huge penguin and seal colonies. Thankfully, it changed direction before reaching the island. Even so, everyone knew the ending was getting closer — the farther north it travelled, the warmer the water became, and warmer water slowly eats away at ice.

When A23a first broke away from Antarctica’s Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986, it covered around 3,500 square kilometres, bigger than Goa and roughly twice the size of London. It had spent almost three decades stuck on the seabed in the Weddell Sea before finally coming loose.

There was no dramatic moment when the iceberg suddenly disappeared. Large chunks broke away first, then those pieces cracked again into smaller fragments, and eventually what was left simply melted into the ocean. By March this year it had shrunk to just 170 square kilometres, and by April, nothing was left big enough to spot from space.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by NASA MODIS Land Rapid Response Team