World's largest iceberg is getting swept away from Antarctica to its doom, satellite image shows

A new satellite image shows that the world's largest glacier could soon be set on an accelerated course toward its eventual demise after drifting around for more than a year.

A-76A is an ice slab that is 84 miles long and 26 miles wide. The A-76 broke off from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf in May 2021.

NASA's Terra satellite captured a picture of A-76A floating in the mouth of the Drake Passage, a deep waterway that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans between Cape Horn in South Africa and the South Shetland Islands. The image shows that the girthy berg is currently sitting between Elephant Island and the South Orkney Islands, but it appears that it will head further north in the coming weeks. NASA's Earth Observatory uploaded the image to their website.

When they drift into the Drake Passage, they are dragged eastward by strong ocean currents, before being whipped northward into warmer waters, where they melt.

The 'ghost island' that vanished may have been a dirty ice cube.

A-76A has traveled 1,250 miles since it broke off from the peninsula. The berg has not lost a lot of ice so far. According to the Earth Observatory, the data collected by the U.S. National Ice Center shows that A-76A is almost the same size as it was when it broke from its parent berg.

It is not likely to stay intact much longer because of the Drake Passage's reputation for sending ice chunks on one-way trips to their watery graves. The main reason for this is that there is only one current that flows around the globe and it contains more water than any other current. The Drake Passage, which runs from west to east, transports between 3,400 and 5,300 million gallons of water per second. The bergs that enter the Drake Passage are quickly dragged away from the Antarctic and dumped in warmer waters.

There are other ocean currents that play a role in determining the fate of Icebergs. Smaller currents play a key role in the distribution and destruction of the wandering ice mass.

The world's largest berg, A68a, was torn in half by powerful ocean currents, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances. Researchers were surprised when the berg broke in the ocean. The study showed that a sudden shift in the direction and strength of the nearby currents was to blame for the big break up of the huge piece of ice.

It's not clear how long A-76A will stay in the Drake Passage, and how long it will last once the ice mass northwards is thrown northward.