Strong currents have taken hold of a massive Antarctic iceberg that is on a collision course towards South Georgia Island, causing it to shift direction and lose a major chunk of mass, a scientist tracking its journey said on Friday.
As the iceberg, dubbed A68a, approached the western shelf edge of the South Atlantic island this week, it encountered strong currents, causing it to pivot nearly 180 degrees, according to Geraint Tarling, a biological oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey.
“You can almost imagine it as a handbrake turn for the iceberg because the currents were so strong,” Tarling said.
That’s when the berg appeared to clip the shelf edge, and caused a …
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