The world-famous iceberg, A-23a, has gotten smaller and smaller over the last four decades and now, is nearing disintegration.
A-23A calved from the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986. At the time, it was 1,544 square miles, almost double the size of Rhode Island, according to NASA.
A Chicago-sized iceberg recently broke away from Antarctica, giving scientists the chance to explore a portion of the sea floor that may have been hidden for centuries.
It’s been 40 years since it first broke away, and has now shrunk down to roughly 400 square miles, according to size estimations from the U.S. National Ice Center.
The iceberg is still considered to be the world’s largest iceberg, but NASA said recent images show that may not last long.
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Image shows A-23A and its meltwater pool on Dec. 26, 2025.
(NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.)
NASA photos taken on Dec. 26, 2025 and Dec. 27, 2025, show the colossal iceberg with striations of blue coloring on parts of its surface.
The first photo, from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, showed the blue pools around the iceberg’s edges, with a solid white spot still remaining in the center of the berg.
The space agency said the color comes from large pools of meltwater sitting on the iceberg, which is currently located in the South Atlantic Ocean, between the eastern tip of South America and South Georgia Island.
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FILE- True color image of A23a from Oct. 20, 2024.
(NASA / NASA)
Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said the pools are likely the result of disintegration events.
“You have the weight of the water sitting inside cracks in the ice and forcing them open,” Scambos said.
A solid white patch to the left of the iceberg suggests it is leaking.
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The solid white patch that could suggest the iceberg is leaking. Taken Dec. 26, 2025.
(NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.)
Retired University of Maryland Baltimore County scientist Chris Shuman said the area is described as a “Blowout.”
NASA said the weight of the water pooling at the top of the towering iceberg would have created enough pressure at the edges to punch through.
“The blowout may have allowed meltwater to spill tens of meters down to the ocean surface in what researchers call a ‘freshwater discharge plume,’ where it mixed with the mélange of ice bits floating next to the iceberg,” NASA said.
Photo taken on Dec. 27, 2025, shows A-23A with blue meltwater atop it as it continues to melt and near disintegration.
(ISS Astronaut photograph provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center / NASA)
The second photo, taken aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 27, 2025, by an astronaut who was part of Expedition 74, shows the iceberg with even more meltwater on top.
In the photo, the center, which was once solid white, is now almost entirely blue with meltwater.
All of these signs suggest that A-23a may not be an iceberg for much longer.
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NASA said scientists believe that the iceberg could be just days or weeks away from completely disintegrating.
Shuman said he doesn’t expect A-23a to last through the austral summer, when skies clear and air and water temperatures are warmer.
A-23a will go down as one of the longest-studied icebergs in world history, NASA said.
