The article is from 11 December. The situation looks like it's getting better, according to Wikipedia.
"As of 17 December 2020, a part of the iceberg was just 50 km (31 mi) from South Georgia, but the concern seemed to have lessened. National Geographic reported that "[s]cientists expect the iceberg ... to either anchor in the shallow waters around the island or move past it in the coming days." On this date it was also reported that a corner had been knocked off A-68A, most likely due to impact with the seabed. The new free floating iceberg has been designated A-68D."
>In an earlier version of this article, the story incorrectly stated the iceberg was a similar size to Jamaica. This has been changed to say a similar shape to Jamaica.
We see the above-water ecological impact, and say "Oh no! The penguins!"
But an iceberg has a profound impact on the ocean ecosystem its melting into. This enormous iceberg is having a continuous impact, for better or for worse, just by existing.
As horrible as this could potentially be for the flora and fauna of South Georgia Island, I hope we record the collision in high fidelity and use it as a teaching tool.
I bet most people have never conceived of a mass of ice this size colliding with anything. Watching it unfold should be captivating and unsettling.
It would be spectacularly boring. The ice would just slowly run aground and stop. The reason it’s so damaging is because it just parked on the entire shallow ecosystem, not because it’s gonna blast into the island like an asteroid.
A spectacular high impact collision unlikely. The "disaster" is that the iceberg grounds in shallower waters around the Islands blocking the fauna from being able to hunt for food.
It covers over 4,000 sq km of ocean and sea floor. To disrupt that you'd need to pepper it with nukes.
So basically instead of letting an ice sheet disrupt the ecosystem across many thousands of square km, you think it would be better to nuke many thousands of square km of ecosystem. Huh.
Readit News
You can keep updated on the progress yourself at the link below. You can also incrementally scroll through he dates using the hour and days.
https://zoom.earth/#view=-55.22,-33.635,7z/date=2020-12-20,1...
https://zoom.earth/#view=-55.849,-35.645,7z/date=2020-12-21,...
https://www.windy.com/-Satellite-satellite?satellite,-55.933...
"As of 17 December 2020, a part of the iceberg was just 50 km (31 mi) from South Georgia, but the concern seemed to have lessened. National Geographic reported that "[s]cientists expect the iceberg ... to either anchor in the shallow waters around the island or move past it in the coming days." On this date it was also reported that a corner had been knocked off A-68A, most likely due to impact with the seabed. The new free floating iceberg has been designated A-68D."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceberg_A-68
>In an earlier version of this article, the story incorrectly stated the iceberg was a similar size to Jamaica. This has been changed to say a similar shape to Jamaica.
Still, at 2/5 the size of Jamaica, this freely moving ice mass is enormous.
But an iceberg has a profound impact on the ocean ecosystem its melting into. This enormous iceberg is having a continuous impact, for better or for worse, just by existing.
I bet most people have never conceived of a mass of ice this size colliding with anything. Watching it unfold should be captivating and unsettling.
As bad as this is, there's probably more to come.
More like a really slow, flat comet!
Multiple mechanisms.
Deleted Comment
It's also a bit late at this point. The time to get things done was years ago.
(and no, an iceberg is NOT anything like a hurricane, which is a heat engine phenomena -- you can definitely shatter an iceberg)
Perhaps check out 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson for a (fictional) look at why shattering large things isn't always a good idea.
So basically instead of letting an ice sheet disrupt the ecosystem across many thousands of square km, you think it would be better to nuke many thousands of square km of ecosystem. Huh.
Trump recently asked if nukes could be used for disrupting hurricanes, and the answer was resoundingly no.
(Perhaps space-beamed microwaves, but there's an issue of scale and interaction with the ozone.)