Scientists have observed that an Antarctic iceberg named A23a is beginning to move towards the ocean, marking the first movement of the iceberg in more than 30 years since it left the Antarctic coastline in 1986. The iceberg has an area of nearly 4000 square kilometers and is currently the largest iceberg in the world. Scientists say that this iceberg has been moving at an extremely slow speed since 2020 and is now accelerating. If this continues, the iceberg may have an impact on maritime transportation in southern Africa. Therefore, its motion trajectory will be closely monitored.

It is worth noting that according to the official website of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, the area of Shenzhen is 1997.47 square kilometers, which means that the area of A23a icebergs is close to two Shenzhen cities.

According to TASS on July 18th, the news agency of the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute told reporters that the world's largest iceberg, which separated from the Antarctic glacier about 30 years ago, has recently begun to actively move downstream and is currently drifting at a speed of about 150 kilometers per month.

The Institute of Arctic and Antarctic Studies pointed out, "Our professionals at the Glacier and Hydrometeorological Information Center are tracking the movement of the world's largest iceberg A23a. After more than 30 years of detachment from Antarctic glaciers, this iceberg began to drift rapidly at a speed of over 150 kilometers per month and is currently entering the Weddell Sea along the coast of Antarctica."

The area of A23a iceberg is approximately 4170 square kilometers. In September 1986, a large number of ice bodies detached from the Filchner Ice Shelf, forming three huge icebergs at the detachment site.

According to Xinhua News Agency, on May 19, 2021, the European Space Agency announced that an iceberg with the code name A76 had detached from the Ronnie continental margin ice layer in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica, becoming the largest iceberg floating in the ocean at that time.

But according to Beijing Daily, the A76 iceberg floated for 148 days and split into three icebergs, namely A76A, A76B, and A76C. Among them, A76A is the largest one, occupying the majority of the volume of A76. In October 2022, artificial satellites showed that the A76A iceberg is 135 kilometers long and 26 kilometers wide. It has entered the Drake Strait, where icebergs often split under the strong ocean currents in Antarctica.

On May 24th this year, NASA's Terra satellite captured six large fragments of the A76A iceberg near South Georgia Island, indicating that the A76A iceberg had already begun to split before the image was taken. In 2021, scientists estimated that the iceberg had injected approximately 900 million tons of freshwater into the ocean, most of which were near South Georgia Island, and will continue to inject large amounts of freshwater into nearby oceans thereafter.

Scientists believe that the A-76A iceberg may ultimately affect nearby marine ecosystems and disrupt the marine food chain.