Weird reason why an iceberg bigger than London stays spinning in place in Atlantic ocean
It's the size of Cornwall and has been stuck in place for months
For many of us, icebergs usually only conjure up images of the Titanic and smashing into the side of a ship.
Yet for one iceberg, its journey from the Antarctic into other parts of Earth has been halted.
Well not even just halted, but it's stuck spinning in the same spot and has been for months now.
Advert
The iceberg, known as A23a, should have been headed for the Southern Atlantic but hasn't quite made its full journey and ic currently in the same spot about 1 kilometre above the seabed.
Getting stuck in April, the iceberg which is the size of Cornwall is stuck and hasn't moved yet.
The iceberg, which first broke off in 1986 initially got caught in the Weddell seabed, remaining stuck for decades.
The spinning is thought to be caused by a scientific phenomenon called 'a Taylor Column', which can happen in water or air. This column can cause an obstruction and in this case, a 100-km bump on the ocean floor called Pirie Bank is what's caused the A23a to be unable to move.
The A23a is calculated to be moving anticlockwise by around 15 degrees a day, and whilst that might not sound like a lot of movement, the British Antarctic Survey have claimed it's "not to be sniffed at".
One person on Twitter was left feeling "deflated" after hearing how solw the iceberg is rotating, as they wrote: "I got excited when i heard the word 'spin' on the radio reports, then somewhat deflated when i read about the speed. I think I've seen too many movies!"
The British Antarctic Survey responded as it said: "To be fair it’s HUGE so 15° a day is not to be sniffed at."
At the beginning of this year, Andrew Fleming, Head of Mapping and GIS at British Antarctic Survey revealed the spinning iceberg isn't the only one to have done this.
He explained: "We’ll be interested to see if it also gets caught in the same place as the previous bergs, which span in circles for several weeks before moving on."
Whilst icebergs get a pretty bad rep (cheers Titantic), it's not all bad. A23a is expected to eventually break up, and its water will be full of nutrients that can help lots of marine life.
However icebergs breaking away and melting is still considered an ongoing environmental issue, and if they continue at pace then it could see sea levels rise quickly and potentially spell problems for us on land.
It's thought if Antarctic icebergs melt then the increased sea levels threaten to make large areas of the world uninhabitable.