More than 1.5 billion tons of fresh water flowed into the ocean from the giant A68 glacier when it melted hard.

The iceberg was the largest in the world for a short time: it was nearly six thousand square miles when it broke off from the North Pole in 2017. By the beginning of 2021, a trillion (one thousand billion) tons of ice had been destroyed. Researchers are currently writing evaluating the giant’s impact on the environment BBC.

A research team at the University of Leeds looked at all the satellite data on how the giant drifted from the white continent across the Southern Ocean to the South Atlantic. The researchers used the data to assess how the rate of melt has changed over the three-and-a-half years of the glacier’s existence. One of the key periods was at the end of his life when he approached the island of South Georgia.

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At this point, it appears to have been stranded on the continental shelf and parts of it are starting to collapse. By April 2021, the scientists said, it had shattered into countless tiny lumps of ice, and it could no longer be pursued. However, its environmental impacts have escaped the iceberg a remote environment sensing According to a study published in the latest issue of the scientific journal.

Too much meltwater alters local currents, and the minerals and organic matter contained in it enter the ocean and affect wildlife.

The British Atlantic Research Team (BAS) was able to place machine tools near the A68 motorway before it was completely destroyed. The data is still being analyzed, and strong indications of changes in the plant and plankton world have already been observed, said biologist and oceanographer Geriant Tarling.

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