Island of South Georgia and Iceberg A-38B
Chunks of Antarctica’s Larsen Ice Shelf have traveled over 1000 miles and rafted all up and around the island of South Georgia this season; some of these tabular bergs are trapped in protected Godthul Bay, making for scenic kayaking and Zodiac cruises today. Above the bones and rusted shambles of a defunct whaling operation, we climbed through tussock mounds and over polar flora, discovering long views, nesting birds and hundreds of reindeer. Down on the water we enjoyed the ice sculpture garden and found the sixth penguin species of our voyage.
The Endeavour departed South Georgia, its profusion of king penguins and fur seals, and histories of whaling and Shackleton. The snowy peaks of the enchanted isle hovered behind us as we entered a broken field of sea-sculpted tabular icebergs. Running in the distance beyond the fantasy of floating mesas was a continuous thin white line – the long edge of one of the world’s largest icebergs. Big enough and long-lived enough to be named, “A-38B” is a tabular ice island, 22 miles wide by 44 miles long, that broke free from the collapsing Larsen Ice Shelf two years ago. Spun out the Weddell Sea’s clockwise gyre along the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula and carried by the West Wind Drift to South Georgia where it has grounded, A-38B has retraced the route of Ernest Shackleton, whose final resting place we visited yesterday. Eventually the iceberg will break up and float free of its current anchorage to melt a million deaths at sea, but this process will take years.
As we headed for the edge of this monstrous icy horizon we found a fantastic wealth of life – humpback whale mothers and calves, southern right whales, southern bottlenose whales, Antarctic fur seals, king penguins, wandering albatrosses and clouds of small seabirds. One right whale rolled its finless back and fluked up off our bow just off the wall of ice. The abundance of marine life in evidence and the sheets of krill on the fathometer prompted thoughts of how the flow of melting freshwater and local currents drive the productivity that indeed must accompany these large temporary islands.
To be able to come right alongside a gargantuan iceberg, an object best viewed by satellite, is quite remarkable. Illusionary, improbable, and un-photographable, yet within reach, this piece of Antarctica was quite inspiring. We departed A-38B with a flood of thoughts – from imaginary islands on antiquated charts to modern satellite images, of productivity patterns and food web players, and possibly most significantly, of the current warming of parts of our planet, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula where our immense iceberg was dispatched. We now leave South Georgia and ice-laden waters as our Atlantic voyage of discovery moves to new latitudes.
Chunks of Antarctica’s Larsen Ice Shelf have traveled over 1000 miles and rafted all up and around the island of South Georgia this season; some of these tabular bergs are trapped in protected Godthul Bay, making for scenic kayaking and Zodiac cruises today. Above the bones and rusted shambles of a defunct whaling operation, we climbed through tussock mounds and over polar flora, discovering long views, nesting birds and hundreds of reindeer. Down on the water we enjoyed the ice sculpture garden and found the sixth penguin species of our voyage.
The Endeavour departed South Georgia, its profusion of king penguins and fur seals, and histories of whaling and Shackleton. The snowy peaks of the enchanted isle hovered behind us as we entered a broken field of sea-sculpted tabular icebergs. Running in the distance beyond the fantasy of floating mesas was a continuous thin white line – the long edge of one of the world’s largest icebergs. Big enough and long-lived enough to be named, “A-38B” is a tabular ice island, 22 miles wide by 44 miles long, that broke free from the collapsing Larsen Ice Shelf two years ago. Spun out the Weddell Sea’s clockwise gyre along the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula and carried by the West Wind Drift to South Georgia where it has grounded, A-38B has retraced the route of Ernest Shackleton, whose final resting place we visited yesterday. Eventually the iceberg will break up and float free of its current anchorage to melt a million deaths at sea, but this process will take years.
As we headed for the edge of this monstrous icy horizon we found a fantastic wealth of life – humpback whale mothers and calves, southern right whales, southern bottlenose whales, Antarctic fur seals, king penguins, wandering albatrosses and clouds of small seabirds. One right whale rolled its finless back and fluked up off our bow just off the wall of ice. The abundance of marine life in evidence and the sheets of krill on the fathometer prompted thoughts of how the flow of melting freshwater and local currents drive the productivity that indeed must accompany these large temporary islands.
To be able to come right alongside a gargantuan iceberg, an object best viewed by satellite, is quite remarkable. Illusionary, improbable, and un-photographable, yet within reach, this piece of Antarctica was quite inspiring. We departed A-38B with a flood of thoughts – from imaginary islands on antiquated charts to modern satellite images, of productivity patterns and food web players, and possibly most significantly, of the current warming of parts of our planet, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula where our immense iceberg was dispatched. We now leave South Georgia and ice-laden waters as our Atlantic voyage of discovery moves to new latitudes.
