Mumbai: World’s largest iceberg, which is estimated to be 10 times in size of Mumbai, has started moving after remaining stuck for 30 long years.
The iceberg, A23a, which broke off from the Antarctic coastline in 1986, had been grounded in the Weddell Sea, but it has now broken free and is drifting towards warmer waters.
Some 400m (1,312 ft) thick and at almost 4,000 sq km (1,500 sq miles) in area, the iceberg is 10 times the size of Mumbai which is spread across 440 sq km and more than twice the size of Greater London.
The past year has seen it drifting at speed, and the berg is now about to spill beyond Antarctic waters, according to BBC.
Unlike other big icebergs that detach from Antarctica and float away, A23A has only moved a few hundred kilometres since it was "born" from the Filchner Ice Shelf in August 1986. This is because it is grounded (stuck) on the sea floor and, as a result, is less vulnerable to fragmenting, according to the Guniness World Record.
Before its calving in 1986, the colossal iceberg hosted a Soviet research station. It's unclear why the iceberg is suddenly on the move again after over 30 years.
The iceberg A23a is now drifting with surprising speed, it is now poised to venture beyond Antarctic waters.
The world's largest iceberg's recent surge is driven by winds and currents, currently passing the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Like most icebergs from the Weddell sector, A23a will almost certainly be ejected into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which will throw it towards the South Atlantic on a path that has become known as "iceberg alley", BBC reported Friday.
This is the same movement of water - and accompanying westerlies - that the famous explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton exploited in 1916 to make his escape from Antarctica following the loss of his ship, the Endurance, in crushing sea-ice.
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