Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

Graeme · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject: Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

mos6507 · Fission Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 2989

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/25/antartica.collapse.ap/index.html

Ferretlover

Boy, oh, boy, do I have a BAD feeling about this!
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cipi604 · Last edited by cipi604 on Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

Don't worry, is going to snow again, or do you believe that the ice stood there since forever and never-ever did break chunks
Right now the weather in Antarctica is -61 °F / -52 °C Heavy Blowing Snow... pretty hot there
But what the hack?!... global warming it is! If you say so...

roccman

cipi604

roccman

SchroedingersCat · Intermediate Crude Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 517

This event is now past-tense:

Giant Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses

SchroedingersCat · Intermediate Crude Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 517

Lore

Yeah... right... nothing to worry about, other then the fact that the collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf is happening 15-years sooner then the scientists had predicted.
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auscanman

While global warming is definitely real, this is pure hype. It's a natural process for huge chunks of ice to break off of ice sheets. Any media reporting this should also inform the reader that Antarctic ice covered the widest area it has for decades last winter. Also, the average increase in thickness of snow on Antarctica should be reported. If the increase in snow thickness exceeds the volume of this ice island, then sea level won't be rising.

cipi604

essex

Misleading Reports About Antarctica

Last year when Antarctic set a new record for ice extent, it got no media attention. They focused on the north polar regions where the ice set record low levels. This summer when unprecedented anomalous cover continued in the Southern Hemisphere again no coverage. Then this report in the news today. You probably saw it on your favorite network or internet news site (pick one, anyone).

Vast Antarctic Ice Shelf on Verge of Collapse - Latest Sign of Global Warming’s Impact Shocks Scientists
Andrea Thompson Livescience

A vast ice shelf hanging on by a thin strip looks to be the next chunk to break off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the latest sign of global warming’s impact on Earth’s southernmost continent. Scientists are shocked by the rapid change of events. Glaciologist Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado was monitoring satellite images of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and spotted a huge iceberg measuring 25 miles by 1.5 miles (37 square miles) that appeared to have broken away from the shelf. Scambos alerted colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) that it looked like the entire ice shelf - about 6,180 square miles (about the size of Northern Ireland)- was at risk of collapsing. The region where the Wilkins Ice Shelf lies has experienced unprecedented warming in the past 50 years, with several ice shelves retreating in the past 30 years. Six of these ice shelves have collapsed completely: Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and the Jones Ice Shelf. See MSNBC version of this story here.

Icecap Note: Lets put this in perspective. The account may be misinterpreted by some as the ice cap or a significant (vast) portion is collapsing. In reality it and all the former shelves that collapsed are small and most near the Antarctic peninsula which sticks well out from Antarctica into the currents and winds of the South Atlantic and lies in a tectonically active region with surface and subsurface active volcanic activity. The vast continent has actually cooled since 1979.

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/antarctic_temps_AVH1982-2004.jpg

The full Wilkins 6,000 square mile ice shelf is just 0.39% of the current ice sheet (just 0.1% of the extent last September). Only a small portion of it between 1/10th-1/20th of Wilkins has separated so far, like an icicle falling off a snow and ice covered house. And this winter is coming on quickly. In fact the ice is returning so fast, it is running an amazing 60% ahead (4.0 vs 2.5 million square km extent) of last year when it set a new record. The ice extent is already approaching the second highest level for extent since the measurements began by satellite in 1979 and just a few days into the Southern Hemisphere winter and 6 months ahead of the peak. Wilkins like all the others that temporarily broke up will refreeze soon. We are very likely going to exceed last year’s record. Yet the world is left with the false impression Antarctica’s ice sheet is also starting to disappear.

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/current_anom_south0325.jpg

One Icecap reader points also to a paper (Glasser et al, 2008 http://www.igsoc.org/journal/54/184/j07J086.pdf) identifying some of the other natural processes that can lead to these ice sheet breaks, in this case Larsen B.

untothislast

Whatever is happening - or is about to happen - there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.

And when we could do something about it - we weren't about to.

So I say, just sit back and enjoy the show. It's not often you get front-row seats at the start of a mass extinction event.

dohboi · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Dec 05, 2005 Posts: 1127

I see the denyalists and the do-nothing-ists are out in force today.

No matter how much or how fast things fall apart, these people will continue to blather,"It's all natural, nothing to worry about here, go on about your business of shopping, driving and flying..."

And of course by "doing nothing" if you are living an average life in a developed country (but especially in the US), your are doing something enormously damaging.

We are active participants in the destruction of the living world just by being "normal" participants in consumer culture.

This is hard to hear and hard to accept. So denyalists, keep on denying, and do-nothing-ists, keep telling yourselves that you are not culpable.

But know that you are not just part of the problem, you are the problem.