Iceberg bigger than Haryana: This world is full of surprising things, the ocean is anyway full of mysteries. The largest iceberg on earth, A23a, is traveling slowly towards land through the Southern Ocean. People are wondering where this huge piece of ice is going. What can it mean for the places it encounters on the way. As reported earlier, A23a broke away from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in 2018. Since that time, A23a has embarked on a unique journey, floating across the expanse of the Southern Ocean. Its huge size is remarkable. It is slightly larger in size than Haryana, a state of India.
The size of the world’s largest iceberg A23a has surprised scientists around the world. Measurements from satellites have revealed that the average thickness of this iceberg is a little over 280 meters (920 feet). France’s Eiffel Tower is just twenty meters taller than this. Its size is 3900 square kilometers (1500 square miles). The size of Haryana is 44212 square kilometers. According to the BBC English website, it has been moving just north of Antarctica for several months, whereas in reality it should be running along the most powerful ocean current on Earth.
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This iceberg is never ending
Scientists say the frozen block is trapped above a giant rotating cylinder of water. It’s a phenomenon oceanographers call a Taylor column – and it’s possible A23a may not survive for long. “Usually you think of icebergs as transient things; they break up and melt, but this one didn’t,” polar expert Professor Mark Brandon said. “A23a is an iceberg that’s not ready to die,” one researcher explained.
For three decades it was an ice island
The A23a iceberg broke free from the Antarctic coastline in 1986, but then almost immediately became trapped in the mud at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. For three decades it was a stationary “ice island.” It didn’t move. It remained there until 2020. But then it started floating again. In early April this year, A23a entered the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), a current that carries a hundred times more water around the world than all the rivers on Earth combined. Its purpose was to send the trillion-ton rock floating into the South Atlantic and on course to its end. But unlike the others, A23a has gone nowhere. It remains just north of the South Orkney Islands, rotating about 15 degrees anticlockwise per day. And as long as it keeps doing that, its eventual demise will be delayed even further.
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What is dynamic feature
Professor Mike Meredith, of the British Antarctic Survey, said: “The ocean is full of surprises, and this dynamical feature is one of the most beautiful features you’ll ever see. Taylor columns can also form in the air; you see them in the movement of clouds over mountains. They can be just a few centimetres across in a laboratory tank or be absolutely gigantic, as in this case.” How long can A23a continue its spinning-top routine? Who knows?
Tag: Haryana News, Science, Science News
first published : August 7, 2024, 5:59 PM IST
