A. Sixty-eight: What will be the effects of the melting of the giant iceberg 'Mega Berg'?

The giant iceberg, named A68, was adding more than 1.5 billion tons of fresh water to the ocean on a daily basis when the iceberg began to melt.

To understand this, let me tell you that this amount of water is one hundred and fifty times more than the water used by the entire British population in a day.

It should be noted that for a short period of time, A-Sixty was the largest avalanche in the world with an area of ​​6000 square kilometers or 2300 square miles. That is one trillion tons of ice. The eruption broke away from Antarctica (South Pole) in 2017. In the next four years, that is, by 2021, its name had disappeared.

Scientists are now trying to gauge the impact of the landslide on the environment.

A team from the University of Leeds, with the help of data collected from satellite, has observed the final journey of this gigantic avalanche, during which this dynamic and momentarily shrinking one trillion ton of ice is turning from Antarctica to the frozen sea. Passing through the south and going north, the Atlantic Ocean descended to the south

The University of Leeds team also used data to find out how fast the ice was melting during the three-and-a-half-year voyage to Mega Berg. The most important and final part of this voyage was when the A68 was entering the warm waters of British South Georgia.

At the time, it was feared that the mega-berg might be trapped in shallower waters and block the movement of millions of penguins, whales and seals.

But that did not happen. According to a team from the University of Leeds, the melting ice had reduced the depth of the mega-leaf, making it difficult for it to continue flowing.

Dr Anne Brackman of the University of Leeds, speaking to the BBC, said that as the A68 approached the land it seemed to touch the seabed for a while. That's when we saw that a small piece of it fell apart. But that was not enough to bring him down.

According to Professor Andrew Shepherd, a fellow researcher at Dr. Anne Brackman, the thickness of this mega-burg was also decreasing from 150 meters to 141 meters.

By April 2021, the avalanche, called the A68, had broken into many small pieces that could not be traced. But the environmental impact of the landslide will last for a long time.

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For a short time, A-Sixty was the largest avalanche in the world

Glaciers and gigantic avalanches leave long lasting effects wherever they go. Freshwater melting from them converts current into the local ocean. All the biological matter, including iron and other minerals, which breaks apart from its ice and has been hidden in it for a long time, is suddenly revived by the ocean.

The British Antarctic Survey used a few robotic gliders to observe the changes that were taking place on the surface of the A68 before its complete demise.

Very interesting information has been obtained from the data obtained from other devices including these gliders.

Oceanographer Professor Gerant Tarling says the data have not yet been fully verified, but it is clear that marine flora, especially phytoplankton species, were undergoing significant changes due to the biological material released from the avalanche.

All information on the changing shape of the A68 and the freshwater discharges from it have been published in a research journal, Journal of Remote Sensing of the Environment.

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