A block of 80 square kilometers broke away from the world's largest iceberg A23a

The world's largest iceberg A23a lost about 2% of its area after a block of about 80 square kilometers broke away from it, the press service of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of Russia reported on February 1.

It is noted that the ice giant is currently drifting 340 kilometers from South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic, in the Skosha Sea. Slowly rotating, over the course of 10 days, it has drifted about 40 kilometers away from the coastline.

"Yesterday, a large block of about 80 square kilometers, about 2% of the ice giant, broke away from the iceberg. <...> The breakaway chunks will be destroyed by ocean heat and currents," the words of Polina Soloshchuk, chief specialist of ice and hydrometeorological information of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, are quoted in the Telegram-channel of the Research Institute.

The specialist specified that since November 2023, during the drift of the iceberg on clear water, its area has decreased by almost 11%. In the future, the trajectory of its movement will depend on the wind in the ocean.

Before that, on January 24, CNN reported that the iceberg A23a is moving north from Antarctica to the island of South Georgia and threatens to collide with it. As noted oceanographer of the British Antarctic Survey Andrew Meyers, before that several months the ice giant with an area of 3.5 thousand square kilometers was in a "trap", rotating around an underwater mountain. It was noted that the iceberg is slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island(USA) and more than twice the size of London.

The Russian satellite Meteor-M photographed iceberg A23a, the image was published by Roscosmos on January 25. According to the latest estimates of scientists, the area of the ice block is 3,672 square kilometers and its weight is almost 1 trillion tons.