Massive iceberg larger than New York City from Reagan era now disintegrating

The iceberg, which broke away from Antarctica 40 years ago and is one of the largest icebergs tracked by scientists, is on the verge of “completely breaking up,” NASA said Thursday.

The space agency noted that when A-23A first left Antarctica in 1986, “when Ronald Reagan was President of the United States and the movie ‘Top Gun’ was a blockbuster,” it was twice the size of Rhode Island.

It is currently floating in the South Atlantic, between the eastern tip of South America and South Georgia Island.

The iceberg was just over 1,500 square miles in 1986, and the U.S. National Ice Center estimates it had shrunk to 456 square miles earlier this year after several large pieces broke off last summer as it moved to a warmer climate.

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Despite its reduced size, the iceberg remains one of the largest in the world, larger than New York City.

The A-23A, which turned blue because it was wet with melt water, was imaged by a NASA satellite the day after Christmas.

A NASA scientist aboard the International Space Station took a close-up photo of the iceberg a day later, showing “an even larger melt pool.”

The blue and white streaks visible on the iceberg are likely related to streaks that formed hundreds of years ago when it was part of a glacier drifting along the Antarctic bedrock.

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A satellite photo of the A-23A taken on 26 December 2025. (NASA)

“It’s impressive that after all this time, with a lot of snow falling and a lot of melting happening from below, these lines are still showing up,” Chris Shuman, a retired scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, told NASA.

The iceberg also “formed a leak” as the weight of water accumulated at the top, creating enough pressure for an “explosion” at the edges, NASA said.

Scientists say it could be days or weeks before the iceberg breaks up.

Iceberg north of South Georgia Island in September 2025. (NASA)

“I certainly don’t expect the A-23A to last through the Australian summer,” Shuman said, referring to the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, which lasts from December to February.

“Even by Antarctic standards, A-23A has had a long and winding journey filled with unexpected segments that have advanced scientists’ understanding of the ‘megabergs’ occasionally released into the Southern Ocean,” NASA said.

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The iceberg remained in the shallow waters of the Weddell Sea in the Southern Ocean for more than 30 years before breaking free in 2020 and becoming an ocean vortex for several months.

It would then move north, nearly colliding with South Georgia Island to the east of the Falklands and heading for the open ocean, where it began to rapidly disintegrate last year.