July 6, 2023 - Remnants of Iceberg A-76 off South Georgia Island

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Shard-like remnants of what was once massive Iceberg A-76 were shrouded
under cloud around South Georgia Island on June 30, 2023, when the
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua
satellite acquired a true-color image of the region.

When A-76 first calved from Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf in May 2021,
it was the largest iceberg on the planet. Initially similar in area as
the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the giant berg quickly split into three
smaller pieces. The largest of those pieces was a rectangular-shaped
tabular iceberg which was named A-76A.

For the last two years, A-76A has been drifting slowly northward, and
has recently begun to break apart in the relatively warm waters near
South Georgia Island. In April 2023, the U.S. National Ice Center
(USNIC) reported that a large chunk of ice had split off of A-76A, and
gave the new chunk the name Iceberg A-76D. By mid-March, additional
breaks in A-76A had resulted in the formation of four more new
icebergs, which were dubbed A-76E, A-76F, A-76G, A-76H, and A-76I. In
late May, A-76F broke apart to create A-76J while A-76A split into
A-76K and A-76L. In early June, A-76A split once again, giving rise to
A-76M. Of the thirteen icebergs that were once part of the massive
A-76, the USNIC is still tracking all except A-76I which broke up and
became too small to track on May 16.

In this image, six named fragments of what was once A-76 are visible
floating near South Georgia Island. To the east are A-76A, A-7F, A-76H,
A-76L, and A-76M while A-76K sits off the western tip of the island.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 6/30/2023
Resolutions: 1km (71.1 KB), 500m (267.1 KB), 250m (886.2
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-07-06

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