It’s also a natural process happening more frequently because of human-caused climate change, said British Antarctic Survey physical oceanographer Andrew Meijers, who examined the iceberg up close in December 2023 when it drifted past the research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough.

The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, is heading north from Antarctica toward South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. In the past, giant icebergs grounding near South Georgia have caused devastating consequences,

The slab of ice — named A23a — weighs almost one trillion tonnes and could slam into South Georgia Island before either getting stuck or being guided around the land by currents.