The island is known as the final resting place of Ernest Shackleton, the British explorer who landed there after his ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1915. Shackleton and two crewmen were forced to traverse the island’s rugged peaks to reach a whaling station and to organize a rescue of the remainder of his crew, who were stranded on another island 700 miles away. He returned to South Georgia Island on a later expedition and died of a heart attack in 1922.South Georgia sits right in the middle of an alley of currents that bring bigger icebergs north from Antarctica toward the equator. Smaller ones usually break up or melt, while larger ones can remain intact for years at a time. In 2004, iceberg A38-B ran aground off South Georgia Island, leaving huge numbers of dead seal pups and young penguins. Two years ago, a Jamaica-sized iceberg named B-15 sailed past after meandering across the Southern Ocean for some 18 years, eventually breaking apart near the equator. Long says that A-68A is being swept north and might crash into the island, or sweep past it.
