A new satellite image has revealed that the world's largest iceberg is drifting away from Antarctica, and is on an accelerating path toward its eventual demise, after slowly drifting around Antarctica for more than a year.The giant ice sheet, known as A-76A, is about 84 miles (135 kilometers) long and 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide.
According to Space, it is the largest part of the world's former largest iceberg A-76, which broke into three pieces: A-76A, A-76B and A-76C.
NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the A-76A slab floating in the mouth of the Drake Passage, a deep waterway connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans between Cape Horn in South Africa and the South Shetland Islands to the north of the Antarctic Peninsula. The image shows that the massive mountain is currently located between Elephant Island and the Southern Orkney Islands at the southern end of the pass, but its course hints that it will head north into the waterway in the coming weeks.
Also, when icebergs drift into the Drake Passage, they are quickly dragged east by strong ocean currents, before turning north in warmer waters, where they melt completely soon after, according to the Earth Observatory.
The A-76A has so far traveled about 1,250 miles (2,000 km) since its separation from
the Antarctic Peninsula in 2021.
The plate has avoided significant ice loss on its journey so far, with data collected by the US National Ice Center in June revealing that the A-76A is roughly the same size as it was when it broke off its original mountain more than a year ago. According to the Earth Observatory.
However, they are unlikely to remain intact for much longer because the Drake Passage is notorious for sending icebergs on a one-way trip to their watery end.
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