In a seemingly reverse Titanic reenactment, the world’s largest iceberg is headed for a remote British territory—one teeming with sensitive wildlife.

The large iceberg A23a is on a collision course with the island of South Georgia, a British overseas territory between Antarctica and Argentina in the South Atlantic Ocean. The massive berg currently drifts just 173 miles (280 kilometers) from the island, and its path poses a potential threat to local wildlife such as penguins and seals, as originally reported by BBC news.

“Icebergs are very dangerous. I would be extraordinarily happy if it just completely missed us,” said sea captain Simon Wallace, who was on the South Georgia government ship. Pharosaccording to BBC News.

The iceberg’s journey began nearly four decades ago, when natural processes caused it to break off the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in West Antarctica. Its newfound freedom did not last long, however, as the iceberg soon pressed against the sea floor. In 2020, it finally broke and began floating in the Weddell Sea once again, only to face another obstacle worthy of Homer’s Odyssey: it is trapped in the water vortex. Its next big escape made headlines late last year, as we previously reported.

The A23a isn’t just big, it’s “very BIG,” Andrew Millerthe principal photographer at Toronto’s Capture North Studios, wrote a blog post on December 10. Miller captured the incredible drone footage of A23a, including the feature image in this article, while working on an expedition with Intrepid Travel.

In August, the iceberg covered an area spanning 1,418 square miles (3,672 square kilometers), though now warmer waters north from Antarctica are slowly melting the 1,312-foot (400-meter) cliffs. , according to the BBC. The iceberg is now “about” the size of Cornwall in England.

A23a is was not the first giant iceberg to make its way to the British Isles and threatens local wildlife. In 2020, iceberg A68a also made a run for landmass, but eventually lost steam to the southeast of the island before. disintegrated and shattered into thousands of pieces. If A68a gets stuck on the sea floor near South Georgia, it will disrupt important penguin and seal feeding routes. That is the concern now as the A23a heads towards the ecologically sensitive island.

“The iceberg (A23a) follows a very similar path (to previous large icebergs) and we are interested to see if it will also be caught in the same place as the previous bergs, which have been circulating for several weeks before continue,” Andrew Fleming, Head of Mapping and GIS at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said in a BAS statement from mid-January. BAS researchers traced the path of A23a with satellite images.

It remains to be seen if the A23a will stay on its course, what will happen to the wildlife regardless of the outcome, and how the decades-long journey of the icy behemoth will end.