An iceberg the size of Rhode Island is moving again after months in a swirling ocean vortex.

The glacier, named A23a, was 1,505 square miles in February of this year, making it the largest glacier in the world.

As of Dec. 13, the glacier measured 1,062 square miles, according to the U.S. National Ice Center, but last November it grew to 1,700 square miles.

The A23a broke off from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf near the Antarctic Peninsula in 1986, but shortly thereafter anchored in the Weddel Sea, where it remained for more than three decades.

In 2020, the iceberg broke free from the seabed, probably due to underwater melting, and swam north along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula until the summer of 2024. At this point, A23a became trapped in a rotating current known as the Taylor’s Column north of the South Orkney Islands, rotating counterclockwise at a rate of about 15 degrees per day.

After months of being caught in this current, the iceberg has finally escaped and is now drifting into the Southern Ocean in the direction of South Georgia.

“It’s exciting to see A23a moving again after periods of being stuck. We wonder if it will follow the same path as the other large glaciers that have calved off Antarctica. More importantly, what impact this will have on the local ecosystem,” he said in a statement Andrew Meijers, oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey and co-leader of the OCEAN:ICE project.

While A23a is still the largest glacier in the world and has been for most of the last 30 years, with other glaciers claiming the title sporadically, such as A68 in 2017 and A76 in 2021.

The largest iceberg ever recorded is Iceberg B-15, which calved from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000. This iceberg was approximately 4,250 square miles—almost the size of Connecticut.

Sadly, A23a’s long reign may soon come to an end as it is expected to break up and dissolve as it travels to warmer waters.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey have closely followed the iceberg during its long journey, studying how A23a and others like it affect Antarctic ecosystems and global ocean nutrient cycling.

“We know that these giant glaciers can provide nutrients to the waters they pass through, creating thriving ecosystems in otherwise less productive areas. We don’t know what difference specific glaciers, their size and their origin can make in this process,” he said. Laura Taylor, a biogeochemist at the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.

“We sampled ocean surface waters behind, immediately next to, and in front of the ice sheet route. These should help us determine what life could form around A23a and how it affects ocean carbon and its balance with the atmosphere.”

Antarctica is losing ice faster than ever before. One 2018 study in the journal Nature found that Antarctica lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice between 1992 and 2017, with the rate of loss increasing from about 76 billion metric tons per year before 2012 to 219 billion metric tons per year in recent years.