A23a, the world's largest iceberg, has baffled scientists by getting trapped in a spinning vortex just north of Antarctica, instead of drifting away as expected. This iceberg, larger than Greater London, was supposed to be racing north in the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, but instead, it's caught in a giant rotating water column called a Taylor Column, causing it to spin in place and delay its melt. This unusual phenomenon, discovered in the 1920s, is keeping A23a from breaking apart or moving, making it the iceberg that just won’t quit!

This unusual event is known as a Taylor Column, named after the physicist Sir G.I. (Geoffrey Ingram) Taylor who first described it in the 1920s. Taylor Columns can trap objects in their swirling waters for a long time, and A23a might be stuck for years to come.

Professor Mark Brandon, an expert on polar ice, pointed out how unusual this is. Normally, icebergs break apart or melt away over time, but A23a seems to defy this pattern. ...