Iceberg melt update: "Earlier this year, A23A was the size of Rhode Island, now it's the size of Houston losing mass fast" Heating Planet at CofA Blog

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 0:03 breaking apart and scientists say it may 0:05 soon vanish entirely. A23A once the 0:09 world's largest iceberg is splintering 0:11 rapidly and can collapse entirely by 0:14 November. Now the iceberg which broke 0:16 off Antarct from Antarctica in 1986 has 0:19 been floating for nearly 40 years. It 0:22 remained stable for decades lodged near 0:24 Antarctica until recently. Now it's 0:26 drifted into warmer waters near South 0:28 Georgia Island where massive icebergs 0:31 often meet their end. Earlier this year, 0:34 A23A was the size of Road Island, 0:38 weighing an estimated 1 trillion tons. 0:41 Now it has shrunk to the size of 0:43 Houston, and scientists say it's losing 0:45 mass fast. 1:04 The title of the world's largest iceberg 1:06 has now passed to D5A, 1:09 which is nearly twice the size of what 1:11 remains of A23A. The crumbling megab has 1:14 already spawned smaller offshoots that 1:16 are A23D, A23E, and A23F. While melting 1:21 icebergs don't directly raise sea 1:23 levels, they have already they're 1:25 already floating and the loss of ice 1:28 shelves like A23A can trigger land 1:30 glaciers to slide into the ocean, which 1:33 will contribute to long-term sea level 1:35 rise. Warm water can cause it to 1:37 collapse like a floating avalanche, 1:39 which is potentially disintegrating in a 1:41 single day. Now, it's a spectacular end 1:44 for a frozen relic of the 20th century 1:46 and a clear sign of accelerating changes 1:48 in the Earth's polar regions. 1:53 [Music]