![]() Seals also populate South Georgia, as do wandering albatrosses, the largest flying bird species. ![]() Thousands of King penguins nest at Gold Habour on South Georgia Island Many thousands of King penguins – a species with a bright splash of yellow on their heads – live on the island, alongside Macaroni, Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins. “We put the odds of collision at 50/50,” Andrew Fleming from the British Antarctic Survey told AFP news agency. Shaped like a fist with a pointing finger, the iceberg known as A68a split off in 2017 from Larsen Ice Shelf on the West Antarctic Peninsula, which has warmed faster than any other part of the Earth’s southernmost continent.Īt its current rate of travel, it will take the giant iceberg – which is several times the area of greater London – 20 to 30 days to run aground in the island’s shallow waters.Ī68a is 160 kilometres (93 miles) long and 48 kilometres (30 miles) across at its widest point, but the iceberg is less than 200 metres deep, which means it could get dangerously close to the island. Icebergs naturally break off from Antarctica into the ocean, but climate change has accelerated the process – in this case, with potentially devastating consequences for abundant wildlife in the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia. ![]() The world’s biggest iceberg is on a collision course with a remote South Atlantic island that is home to thousands of penguins and seals, and could impede their ability to gather food, scientists have said.
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