by Jill Warnke
The world’s largest iceberg is currently iceberg A-76A. It was originally part of a larger iceberg, A-76, which had broken off from Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf in 2021. But A-76A came to be its own iceberg after A-76 had split into pieces, A-76A being the largest one. In October 2022, NASA’s Terra satellite found A-76A floating towards the equator through the Drake Passage, where it is expected to meet its demise.
The Drake Passage is a body of water stretching between Cape Horn at the bottom of South America and the South Shetland islands near Antarctica. It connects the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, spanning 620 miles wide and provides the quickest sailing route to get to Antarctica. But at the same time, the Drake Passage is also known for being some of the roughest water in the world with waves that can get up to 26 ft tall.
The reason for the waters of the Drake Passage being so choppy is because it is where the Pacific, Atlantic and Southern oceans converge. Additionally, there is also no landmass to create resistance, and there are high winds there. These all lead to the Drake Passage’s rough waters.
Getting back to the topic at hand, iceberg A-76A is heading through the Drake Passage and then expected to move north towards the equator. Nothing is confirmed yet in regards to the fate of iceberg A-76A, but it can be inferred that A-76A will cease to exist despite being able to avoid much ice loss throughout its trip up to this point..
It is likely that as iceberg A-76A passes through the Drake Passage, it will eventually melt in the warmer waters similar to other icebergs that had gone through the waterway.
