A23a megaberg: Game of Thrones style ice wall on course to hit British island

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is headed straight into a collision course with a remote British island, putting its inhabitants at risk.

The massive iceberg is enormous, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other for as far as the eye can see, and is barreling straight for South Georgia Island, a distant Antarctic haven that's home to millions of penguins and seals.

The massive creature, referred to as A23a, poses a potential threat to the island's delicate ecosystem.

Scientists are keeping a close eye on A23a, expecting two possible outcomes: the iceberg might crash into South Georgia and get stuck, or ocean currents could steer it around the island.

If this huge one-trillion-ton ice block, called a megaberg, gets stuck it could make life difficult for penguin parents to feed their babies, and in severe cases, some young penguins may even go hungry.

Researchers overall, though, don't seem too concerned about major damage from the iceberg.

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The gigantic iceberg stretches from one end of the horizon to the other," Meijers said on Thursday about the massive 130-foot tall block of ice. "It's essentially a massive wall, an enormous Game of Thrones-style wall of ice that rises high above the ship. With big waves crashing against it and a bit of sunlight peeking through," he continued, "it's really striking.

Meijers explained that for every sliver of the iceberg visible above the water, there's an enormous amount hidden below.

The iceberg is moving at an extremely slow pace, inching along at just one meter every three to seven seconds, which is significantly slower than one mile per hour, according to Meijers.

In the next two to four weeks, the iceberg will be approaching South Georgia, where the water gets shallower, so it could become pinned, according to Meijers, or it might instead slide by.

A University of Colorado ice scientist, Ted Scambos, explained in an email: "Large icebergs are in constant motion in the waters around South Georgia, floating into the surrounding shoals nearly every year - it's as if they follow a well-known route. This ocean current path has been documented for a long time, dating back to Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's time, who led British expeditions to the Antarctic continent. Shackleton managed to reach the island in just three weeks, which is impressive, considering he relied on sails. Typically, icebergs take a bit longer to make this journey."

A map of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands:

According to Meijers, the large iceberg will eventually break apart into smaller pieces and then melt like typical icebergs do.

At full size, the iceberg still isn't a major hazard for local fishermen to worry about since they can see it from afar. However, there is a greater concern for penguins, especially since they're currently in their peak breeding season, according to Meijers.

The island of South Georgia is incredibly biodiverse. It's essentially a nursery for a massive number of penguins and seals," Meijers said. "There are large quantities of baby seals and chicks, and they all still rely on their parents.

The parents swim quite a ways out into the ocean to forage for food, but occasionally, icebergs can get in the way of their path. As a result, the adults have to swim even farther to find food, which increases their energy expenditure and ultimately means they can bring less back to their babies. "Unfortunately, this can dramatically increase mortality rates," Meijers said, noting that this has occurred in past instances.

The loss of that individual colony is a concern, but it doesn't significantly impact overall penguin population numbers, Scambos noted.

The entire ecosystem in the Southern Ocean is indeed extremely resilient to these events, as it has adapted to and evolved with calving icebergs for hundreds of thousands of years.

The iceberg originally broke off in 1986, but had been trapped in a densely packed area of sea ice for many years until a few years ago, according to Meijers.

Breaking off from glaciers is a natural process, but the frequency is increasing as the climate warms up and more freshwater flows into the ocean, according to Meijers.

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