Scientists have been keeping a close eye on the 'megaberg' designated as A68a since it split off from Antarctica back in July 2017 – and new research highlights just how much freshwater it's released into the ocean during its late melting process.
Satellite monitoring systems indicate that for three months at the end of its lifetime, up to March 2021, the iceberg released an astonishing 152 billion tons of freshwater around the remote island of South Georgia – that's the equivalent of 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
There are worries about how this sudden injection of freshwater and the nutrients flowing off the iceberg could affect marine habitats around the island in terms of both ocean circulation and the biological food chain.
"This is a huge amount of meltwater, and the next thing we want to learn is whether it had a positive or negative impact on the ecosystem around South Georgia," says Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, a glaciologist from the University of Leeds in the UK and the study's lead author.
A total of five satellites were employed to keep tabs on the position, area, thickness, and volume change of A68a. At its peak, the iceberg was melting at a rate of 7 meters ror 23 feet per month. READ MORE...
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