ANTARCTICA: It "can collapse entirely by November. Now it's drifted into warmer waters near South Georgia Island where massive icebergs often meet their end." Video & Transcript: "World's Biggest Iceberg: Frozen Giant A23A Breaking Apart" WION Climate Tracker Sept 5 '25
Blogger note: Antarctica is about to warm up for the southern hemisphere summer.
TRANSCRIPT: A frozen giant in the southern ocean is
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breaking apart and scientists say it may
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soon vanish entirely. A23A once the
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world's largest iceberg is splintering
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rapidly and can collapse entirely by
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November. Now the iceberg which broke
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off Antarct from Antarctica in 1986 has
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been floating for nearly 40 years. It
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remained stable for decades lodged near
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Antarctica until recently. Now it's
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drifted into warmer waters near South
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Georgia Island where massive icebergs
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often meet their end. Earlier this year,
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A23A was the size of Road Island,
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weighing an estimated 1 trillion tons.
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Now it has shrunk to the size of
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Houston, and scientists say it's losing
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mass fast.
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The title of the world's largest iceberg
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has now passed to D5A,
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which is nearly twice the size of what
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remains of A23A. The crumbling megab has
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already spawned smaller offshoots that
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are A23D, A23E, and A23F. While melting
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icebergs don't directly raise sea
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levels, they have already they're
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already floating and the loss of ice
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shelves like A23A can trigger land
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glaciers to slide into the ocean, which
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will contribute to long-term sea level
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rise. Warm water can cause it to
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collapse like a floating avalanche,
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which is potentially disintegrating in a
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single day. Now, it's a spectacular end
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for a frozen relic of the 20th century
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and a clear sign of accelerating changes
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in the Earth's polar regions.
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[Music]
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