Huge iceberg trapped in ocean trap spinning

Something extraordinary is happening to A23a, the world’s largest iceberg.

For months, it has been spinning just north of Antarctica, where it should actually be spinning with the most powerful ocean currents on Earth.

Scientists say the frozen mass is more than twice the size of Greater London and was captured at the top of a giant rotating column of water.

Oceanographers call this phenomenon a “Taylor column” – and A23a may not be able to escape its imprisonment for years.

Polar expert Professor Mark Brandon said: “Normally you think of icebergs as ephemeral things; they break up and melt. But that’s not the case with this iceberg.”

“A23a is an iceberg that refuses to die,” researchers from the Open University told BBC News.

The longevity of this mountain is well documented. It broke away from the Antarctic coastline back in 1986, but then almost immediately became mired in the undersea mud of the Weddell Sea.

For thirty years it has been a static “Iceland.” It didn’t move. It wasn’t until 2020 that it refloated and began drifting again, slowly at first, then hurtling north toward warmer air and water.

In early April this year, A23a entered the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) – a powerful force that transports a hundred times more water across the globe than all the planet’s rivers combined.

This was to place a booster on the nearly trillion-ton iceberg, shoot it into the South Atlantic and eventually be forgotten.

In contrast, A23a made no progress. It remains north of the South Orkney Islands and rotates approximately 15 degrees counterclockwise each day. As long as it does so, its decline and eventual demise will be delayed.

A23a has not yet grounded again; there are at least a kilometer of water between its bottom and the ocean floor.

It is held back by a vortex first described by a distinguished physicist in the 1920s, Sir GI Taylor (Geoffrey Ingram).

The Cambridge academic was a pioneer in the field of fluid dynamics and was even included in the Manhattan Project to simulate the possible stability of the world’s first atomic bomb test.

Professor Taylor showed how, under the right circumstances, a current encountering a seafloor obstacle can split into two distinct currents, creating a full-depth rotating mass of water between them.

In this case, the obstacle is a 100-kilometer-wide bulge on the ocean floor called Pirie Bank. The whirlpool is located at the top of the river bank and currently the A23a is its prisoner.

Professor Mike Meredith from the British Antarctic Survey said: “The ocean is full of surprises and this dynamic feature is one of the loveliest you will ever see.”

“Taylor columns can also form in the air; you can see them in the movement of clouds over mountains. They can be only a few centimeters in diameter in experimental laboratory tanks, or they can be huge, as in this case Taylor The column has a huge iceberg slapping – banging in the middle of it.

How long can A23a continue performing its gyroscopic routine?

Who knows, but when Professor Meredith placed a scientific buoy in Taylor’s Column above another bulge east of Peary Shoals, Four years later, the floating instrument is still spinning in place.

A23a once again perfectly illustrates the importance of understanding the shape of the seafloor.

Undersea mountains, canyons and slopes have a profound impact on the direction and mixing of waters and the distribution of nutrients that drive marine life.

This influence also extends to the climate system: large-scale movements of water help disperse heat energy around the globe.

The behavior of A23a is explainable because the seafloor north of the South Orkney Islands has been fairly well surveyed.

This is not the case in much of the rest of the world.

Now, Only a quarter of the Earth’s ocean floor has been mapped Meet the best modern standards.