Did you know the biggest iceberg in the world is cruising through the ocean right now? It’s called A23a, and it first broke off the Filchner Ice Shelf way back in 1986! For decades, it was just chilling (literally) in the Weddell Sea, stuck on the seabed. Then it started moving again in 2020, only to get trapped in this oceanic vortex called the Taylor Column. But in December 2024, it finally broke free and is now heading toward South Georgia Island. Oh, and get this — it’s over 4,300 square kilometers in size, which makes it more than three times bigger than New York City! Credit:
Mark 1333 / YouTube
Alexander Snow / YouTube
Rodolphe D. / YouTube
cheesyman101 / Reddit
Otis2014x / Reddit
2old-you / Reddit
Unknown / Imgur
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/:
Ice Castles NY: by Katie Alois, https://skfb.ly/otJ8Q
Very Large Iceberg: by Brignolo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Very_Large_Iceberg_and_Antarctic_Sea_2.jpg
Iceberg Shape: by Romain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iceberg_Shape.svg
Iceberg A23a: by MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iceberg_A23a_(MODIS).jpg, https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-11-28
Rapid Sea Ice Breakup: by NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rapid_Sea_Ice_Breakup_along_the_Ronne-Filchner_Ice_Shelf_AMO_2010012_lrg.jpg, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/42302/rapid-sea-ice-breakup-along-the-ronne-filchner-ice-shelf
World’s Largest Iceberg: by NOAA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World’s_Largest_Iceberg_Wanders_the_Weddell_Sea_(NESDIS_2024-03-14_202402010249-202402291913_n20_n21_npp_viirs_A23a-through-February_labels).gif, https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/worlds-largest-iceberg-wanders-the-weddell-sea
Bering glacier: by NASA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bering_glacier.jpg, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/4710/bering-glacier-alaska
Animation is created by Bright Side.
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
Mark 1333 / YouTube
Alexander Snow / YouTube
Rodolphe D. / YouTube
cheesyman101 / Reddit
Otis2014x / Reddit
2old-you / Reddit
Unknown / Imgur
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/:
Ice Castles NY: by Katie Alois, https://skfb.ly/otJ8Q
Very Large Iceberg: by Brignolo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Very_Large_Iceberg_and_Antarctic_Sea_2.jpg
Iceberg Shape: by Romain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iceberg_Shape.svg
Iceberg A23a: by MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iceberg_A23a_(MODIS).jpg, https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-11-28
Rapid Sea Ice Breakup: by NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rapid_Sea_Ice_Breakup_along_the_Ronne-Filchner_Ice_Shelf_AMO_2010012_lrg.jpg, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/42302/rapid-sea-ice-breakup-along-the-ronne-filchner-ice-shelf
World’s Largest Iceberg: by NOAA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World’s_Largest_Iceberg_Wanders_the_Weddell_Sea_(NESDIS_2024-03-14_202402010249-202402291913_n20_n21_npp_viirs_A23a-through-February_labels).gif, https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/worlds-largest-iceberg-wanders-the-weddell-sea
Bering glacier: by NASA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bering_glacier.jpg, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/4710/bering-glacier-alaska
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00You're lazing around on the deck of the ship when you see something whitish-gray covering
00:05the horizon.
00:06Like in a horror movie or your worst nightmare, this weird fog is nearing the vessel.
00:11It's infinite, you can't see where it starts or where it ends.
00:15Soon it makes the ship look like a grain of sand in a vast desert.
00:19That's when the realization hits – it's an iceberg, and your ship is likely going
00:24to repeat the Titanic's fate.
00:27All this is a very likely scenario since the world's biggest iceberg, A23A, is on the
00:33move again after months of spinning in a huge water vortex.
00:37And it's actually the second time in just a couple of years that this massive chunk
00:42of ice has broken free.
00:44The first time was in 2023, when the berg went wandering around after being stuck on
00:49the seafloor for a staggering 37 years.
00:52The thing is huge, about three times the size of New York City.
00:56It also weighs nearly a trillion tons.
00:59The giant chunk of ice first broke off from Antarctica's Filsner Ice Shelf back in 1986,
01:05but instead of floating away, it got grounded on the seafloor just a few miles from where
01:09it started.
01:11Because of that, it melted much more slowly than most icebergs.
01:14In December 2023, A23A finally broke free and started to drift away from Antarctica.
01:22But it didn't get far before getting stuck again.
01:25This time near the South Orkney Islands.
01:27It got trapped in something called a Taylor Column.
01:30That's a huge spinning water current that forms when ocean currents swirl around an
01:35underwater mountain.
01:36At one point, A23A was rotating around 15 degrees counterclockwise every day.
01:43Luckily, as of December 2024, the iceberg escaped the Taylor Column and is now slowly
01:49moving again.
01:51Scientists are super curious to see if it'll follow the same path as other giant icebergs
01:56that have broken off from Antarctica, or if it'll find its own unique way.
02:01Such enormous icebergs, such as A23A, release nutrients into the water as they melt.
02:07And it can actually create hot spots of life in parts of the ocean that are usually pretty
02:12empty.
02:13But there's still a lot we don't understand about how the size, shape, or origin of the
02:18iceberg might affect that process.
02:21So to figure it out, scientists have been collecting water samples from the areas A23A
02:26is expected to pass through, and they'll keep collecting samples as it drifts along.
02:31Hopefully, it'll give us a better idea of how massive icebergs like this one influence
02:36the ocean around them.
02:38By the way, the glacier our monster of an iceberg was once part of could be very, very
02:43old.
02:44Literally ancient.
02:46In Antarctica, the oldest glacier ice might be close to 1 million years old.
02:51Over in Greenland, the oldest glacier ice is more than 100,000 years old.
02:56And in Alaska, the oldest glacier ice ever recovered, found in a basin between Mount
03:00Bona and Mount Churchill, is only about 30,000 years old.
03:05A mere child.
03:06At the same time, in a typical Alaskan Valley glacier, it only takes about 100 years for
03:12newly formed ice to travel through the entire length of the glacier.
03:15For something like Bering Glacier, which is Alaska's largest and stretches over 140
03:20miles, the ice can move through the whole thing in less than 400 years.
03:25And that's a lot of movement for such a massive glacier.
03:29Now let's move on to Iceberg Alley, a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean that runs from the Arctic
03:34to Newfoundland.
03:35If you want to see as many icebergs as you can, that's the place to be.
03:40Tens of icebergs float through this place every year.
03:43Most of them come from Greenland.
03:45In spring and summer, big chunks of glaciers break off and get carried by north-south currents
03:50through Baffin Bay into the Labrador Sea, where they eventually melt.
03:55Some icebergs also come from Canada's shoreline, traveling through the Davis Strait and into
04:00the Labrador Sea before drifting along Newfoundland's eastern and western coasts.
04:05These massive ice chunks are really old too, about 10,000 years.
04:10Every year, about 400 to 800 medium and large icebergs pass through Iceberg Alley.
04:16How fast they drift depends on their size, shape, currents, waves, and wind, but the
04:21average speed is less than a half mile per hour.
04:26There are 6 types of icebergs that make their way through Iceberg Alley.
04:30Tabular icebergs are flat slabs of ice, much wider than they are tall.
04:35Steady icebergs have steep sides and sharp angles, like cut-off pyramids.
04:40Wedged icebergs have one steep side and one sloping side.
04:44Dome icebergs have a rounded top.
04:46Pinnacle icebergs have one or more steep peaks sticking up.
04:50And dry-dock icebergs are U-shaped, with a hollowed-out section.
04:54They all look incredible.
04:56Comment below which is your favorite type!
05:00Anyway, as these icebergs drift south, the warmer water speeds up their melting, making
05:05them pretty unpredictable, and sometimes dangerous.
05:09Nowadays, satellites help track medium and large icebergs to prevent accidents, but smaller
05:14icebergs can still be risky for small boats.
05:17One iceberg made headlines in 2018 when it got unusually close to the Newfoundland village
05:23of Fairyland.
05:24Pictures of the giant iceberg towering over the village's houses went viral.
05:29It got stuck in a 330-foot-deep water, which turned out to be too shallow for its massive
05:34size.
05:35And now I'll take you on an unusual journey to the past to witness the birth of something
05:40beautiful and equally disastrous.
05:43Its very existence led to one of the greatest tragedies in history.
05:47Watch.
05:48An enormous chunk of ice is breaking off a glacier in southwest Greenland.
05:52It's made of snow that fell over 100,000 years ago, when mammoths were still wandering around
05:58the planet.
05:59The enormous iceberg starts its long journey.
06:02It stretches more than 1,700 feet in length and weighs 75 million tons.
06:08Despite its size, it's pretty peaceful, and stays far away from ships and the busy
06:12transport routes near where it was born.
06:15But then, it starts floating south, much farther than most icebergs ever get.
06:21Usually, icebergs like this melt way before they reach such warm waters.
06:26Out of the 15,000 to 30,000 icebergs that drift away from Greenland's glaciers every
06:31year, only about 1% make it all the way to the Atlantic.
06:36So the fact that this iceberg keeps going and reaches over 5,000 miles south of the
06:41Arctic Circle by April makes it truly unique.
06:45Even after months of melting, this block of ice is still incredibly massive.
06:50It weighs around 1.5 million tons, which is almost twice as much as the Golden Gate
06:55Bridge.
06:56Above the water, its visible parts tower more than 100 feet high.
07:01But like most icebergs, the majority of it, about 90%, is hidden below the surface.
07:07The iceberg's story takes a tragic turn on April 14, 1912, when guess what?
07:14Yep, it comes across the ocean liner Titanic.
07:18The ship is about 370 miles from Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean when the iceberg
07:23seems to appear out of nowhere.
07:25The crew doesn't spot it until just minutes before the crash.
07:29Why don't they see it sooner?
07:31That's a good question.
07:33Most people imagine icebergs as tall, bright, white chunks of ice, maybe even covered with
07:38snow.
07:39But in reality, icebergs come in all sorts of colors.
07:43Some are striped, patterned, or even have candy-like swirls.
07:47And they can also be black.
07:49There are two ways an iceberg can turn black.
07:52When the ice is extremely pure, with no bubbles or cracks, then it absorbs all the light instead
07:57of reflecting it, making it look black.
08:00Or a volcanic eruption can cover a glacier in ash.
08:04If ice from that glacier breaks off, it can have a dark or black color.
08:10Still aren't sure why the Titanic's iceberg looked dark.
08:13Or even if it really did.
08:15But one sailor who was on the lookout in the crow's nest said it seemed black.
08:20Another described it as gray or dark gray.
08:24One theory is this iceberg could've been a black bird, which forms when the top part
08:28melts, causing the iceberg to roll over.
08:31If the bottom is smooth enough to absorb light, it looks dark.
08:35But even if the iceberg wasn't truly black, night time could've made it much harder
08:40to spot.
08:42Icebergs don't reflect much light, especially if they're jagged or vertical.
08:46They end up blending into the dark, shimmering ocean.
08:50Without radar, icebergs at night are incredibly hard to see.
08:54Which is probably why the Titanic's crew didn't notice it in time.
09:03That's it for today!
09:04But – hey!
09:05If you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends!
09:09Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!