Growing Antarctic crack primes Delaware-sized iceberg

[webfact]

Growing Antarctic crack primes Delaware-sized iceberg

By Tom James

REUTERS

 

An oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarcitc Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf is shown in this November 10, 2016 photo taken by scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission in Antarctica. Courtesy John Sonntag/NASA/Handout via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - A crack that could create an iceberg the size of Delaware -- and destabilize one of the largest ice shelves in the Antarctic -- has branched out and begun to widen more quickly, a scientist said on Wednesday.

 

The new fissure has turned toward the shelf's ocean edge, potentially speeding up the iceberg's process of breaking off, said Dan McGrath, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a project partner with UK-based monitoring group Project Midas, which reported on the new crack on Monday.

 

"It’s taking basically a sharp hook toward the calving front," said McGrath, using a technical term to describe the ocean side of the ice shelf.

 

It is reasonable to link the event and the shrinking ice shelves in Antarctica to global warming, Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Penn State University who is not connected with project.

 

An overwhelming majority of scientists say human activity - including the burning of oil, gas and coal - is the main driver of rising global temperatures.

 

Located on the Larsen C ice shelf, the fourth largest in Antarctica, the new Antarctica crack is an offshoot of a rupture that gained notice after growing dramatically in 2014, and last year was forecast to cause the separation of a 1,900-square-mile (5,000-square-kilometer) iceberg within years.

 

For comparison, the projected size of the iceberg is more than 300,000 times the size of the 125-meter (410-foot) iceberg that sunk the Titanic, putting it among the largest on record.

 

While not getting longer, the original crack has continued to widen steadily, at a rate of about 3 feet (1 meter) per day, a rate that has increased since the new crack formed, according to the Midas report.

 

McGrath, who has studied the shelf extensively, said the combination of the new crack and the faster widening could point to an imminent separation of the berg, even as soon as this summer.

 

The loss of so much ice would shrink the shelf by about 10 percent, leaving it with the smallest area ever recorded.

 

Scientists from the group also warned in 2015 that the loss of such a large mass of ice would create a "significant risk" of the shelf as a whole becoming unstable and breaking up, although McGrath cautioned the outcome is not guaranteed.

 

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Arctic ice sets new record low for winter -scientists

Antarctica hits record high temperature at balmy 17.5°C (63.5°F)

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(Reporting by Tom James in Seattle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-04

[Lupatria]

No worries! Trump says climate change is fake news.

[scorecard]

How big is Delaware?

[Rob13]

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

How big is Delaware?

 

Vermont could kick it's a**e in a war.

[daveAustin]

Some simpleton will come along in a minute and say these blips have always occurred in the history of earth, but conveniently miss out the bit where people have caused this one.

[masuk]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

How big is Delaware?

one tenth the size of Tasmania.  

Now you know!

[cruisemonkey]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

How big is Delaware?

 

About the size of an iceberg.  

[Dagnabbit]

No worries! Trump says climate change is fake news.

You would have thought mankind would have learnt their lesson after the Titanic...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ilostmypassword]

4 hours ago, scorecard said:

How big is Delaware?

2491 square miles.

[dinsdale]

Seems our climate change/global warming skeptics here on TV are a bit quite. Pity the pic doesn't do justice to the story. Bit difficult to get just how big it is. Maybe this is false news. Climate change/global warming? Naaah, not happening.

[anon4546543]

Na, it can't be true. This must be fake news. Global warming is a myth, constant reports of overall global warming is fake news. Constant overall temp increases is bs. The photo is fake news.

The opinions of 95% of scientists from all walks of scientific opinion must also be fake.

Oh hell. there go my oil and coal shares. There goes all the money I put into anti renewable positions.

Oh God, this cannot be true. Really? Na, Trump has it right. Such a brilliant mind, he says it is not real, that makes it ok. Please, that makes it all ok?

[Guest]

The true size of Delaware (from http://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTQ4MzI1NTc.MTM4MTI3ODc*MTk0Mzk3NjA(MTczODk3MTE~!CONTIGUOUS_US*MTAwMjQwNzU.MjUwMjM1MTc(MTc1)MA~!IN*NTI2NDA1MQ.Nzg2MzQyMQ)MQ~!CN*OTkyMTY5Nw.NzMxNDcwNQ(MjI1)Mg~!US-DE*NjIwMjgzNw.MjIyNTI3NzU)Mw )
 

 

[canuckamuck]

18 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Some simpleton will come along in a minute and say these blips have always occurred in the history of earth, but conveniently miss out the bit where people have caused this one.

Calving glaciers are cause by the advancing or spreading of the ice sheet. Yes once they break off the ice shelf is smaller. But this will eventually be replaced by more ice as the glacier continues to spread. Did you think that if humans were still living in caves that there wouldn't be massive pieces of ice occasionally floating off to sea. 

I am looking forward to your empirical evidence that we caused this one. 

 

[i claudius]

19 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Some simpleton will come along in a minute and say these blips have always occurred in the history of earth, but conveniently miss out the bit where people have caused this one.

 , and this has happened time after time in the history of the world , so what caused it last time , when men were not on the planet ? we need a simpleton to tell us ,dont we?

[overherebc]

Lot of it caused by millions of cubic miles of hot air spewing from governments around the world.

[Keesters]

20 hours ago, scorecard said:

How big is Delaware?

Ever thought of trying http://google.com

 

Won't help those who won't help themselves

 

[Dagnabbit]

Calving glaciers are cause by the advancing or spreading of the ice sheet. Yes once they break off the ice shelf is smaller. But this will eventually be replaced by more ice as the glacier continues to spread. Did you think that if humans were still living in caves that there wouldn't be massive pieces of ice occasionally floating off to sea. 
I am looking forward to your empirical evidence that we caused this one. 
 

Stop that.

Science is racist.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Andaman Al]

Whilst this all sounds very dramatic on the grand scheme of things it is nothing. Go on google and entertain yourself for a while and you can see all the satellite imagery that is showing that the Antarctic ice fields have pretty much been at an all time record high (since records were kept) in the last 5 years.

 

I am not questioning climate change !  The climate is very complex and the Arctic and Antarctic are VERY different weather systems. One is a sea/ice surrounded by land and the other is a continent surrounded by Sea/Ice. The fact is that whilst big chunks of ice are separating down in the Antarctic the overall mass is barely changing. As this one particular ice shelf will diminish in size others are growing. Climate change is real, It is just that nobody truly understands it yet in terms of why things are happening. Scientists still do not fully understand why the Arctic ice mass is diminishing and the Antarctic Ice mass is increasing.

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Andaman Al said:

Whilst this all sounds very dramatic on the grand scheme of things it is nothing. Go on google and entertain yourself for a while and you can see all the satellite imagery that is showing that the Antarctic ice fields have pretty much been at an all time record high (since records were kept) in the last 5 years.

 

I am not questioning climate change !  The climate is very complex and the Arctic and Antarctic are VERY different weather systems. One is a sea/ice surrounded by land and the other is a continent surrounded by Sea/Ice. The fact is that whilst big chunks of ice are separating down in the Antarctic the overall mass is barely changing. As this one particular ice shelf will diminish in size others are growing. Climate change is real, It is just that nobody truly understands it yet in terms of why things are happening. Scientists still do not fully understand why the Arctic ice mass is diminishing and the Antarctic Ice mass is increasing.

That finding about antarctica increasing in mass was from a nasa study that used data through 2008.  It also noted that the rate of increase was slowing.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic-ice-sheet-greater-than-losses

 

A more recent gravimetric study concluded that the total  Antarctic ice mass was shrinking. West Antarctica was losing ice and snow twice as fast as East Antarctica was gaining.

"A decade of gravity analysis alone cannot force you to take a position on this ice loss being due to anthropogenic global warming. All we have done is take the balance of the ice on Antarctica and found that it is melting — there is no doubt. But with the rapidly accelerating rates at which the ice is melting, and in the light of all the other, well-publicized lines of evidence, most scientists would be hard pressed to find mechanisms that do not include human-made climate change."

https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S43/04/11E77/index.xml?section=topstories

 

Then there's also the possible destabilization of ice sheets into the Amundsen sea sector which would be a disaster.

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14191.abstract

[Andaman Al]

2 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Then there's also the possible destabilization of ice sheets into the Amundsen sea sector which would be a disaster.

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14191.abstract

As long as it's not the Andaman Sea 

[ilostmypassword]

2 minutes ago, Andaman Al said:

As long as it's not the Andaman Sea 

As long as there's a wall around it that's 10 meters above sea level there shouldn't be a problem.

Edited May 5, 2017 by ilostmypassword

[boomerangutang]

Anti-science Trumpsters will say something like, "oh Delaware.  A small state.  Not nearly as big as Texas, so what's the big deal?  When you find an iceberg as big as Texas, let me know.  Then I'll sit up and take notice."

[Andaman Al]

Look on the bright side.

 

There are huge money spinoffs if the ice berg sets afloat! I remember flying Iceland Air about 15 years ago and in business class the ice in your drinks was glacial ice, a minimum of 10 000 years old! It had an amazing blue colour to it (not sure if it exposed us to consuming any 10 000 year old viruses or parasites), which was better than having a yellow colour from woolly mammoth pee. It also made a great 'cracking sound' in the glass.

 

There are a lot of 100 000 year old ice cubes in an ice berg the size of Delaware, perfect for a 21 yr old malt or chilling down your Louis Roederer.

Edited May 5, 2017 by Andaman Al

[boomerangutang]

6 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Calving glaciers are cause by the advancing or spreading of the ice sheet. Yes once they break off the ice shelf is smaller. But this will eventually be replaced by more ice as the glacier continues to spread. Did you think that if humans were still living in caves that there wouldn't be massive pieces of ice occasionally floating off to sea. I am looking forward to your empirical evidence that we caused this one. 

                          It's a big assumption to assume those gargantuan calving glaciers in Antarctica are going to get that ice replaced uphill.  Antarctica is technically a desert, because it's among the lowest precipitation places in the world.  So, these giant icebergs we hear about ARE NOT NECESSARILY BEING REPLACED BY ADDED ICE UPHILL.   

 

                          Plus, there's a dam effect.  Sometimes when a large dam fails, the first indications are just a crack and a small amount of water coming out.  Then later,  it bursts.  Antarctica is similar in some of its bays.  The ice which borders the open water is like a dam.  It could well happen that when the outer 'plug' is broken up, the immense force of the glacier will speed up and empty into the sea at a faster rate.

 

                         That's what I'm led to believe is happening.  It's believable.  The breaking point may not be in my lifetime, as I only have about 30 years to live, .....but it could well happen within the next 50 or so years.

[boomerangutang]

                             Maybe Trump can build a wall to hold all that ice in place.  After all, he says he's the greatest wall builder, and he'll get some practice by building the biggest tallest most beautiful you've ever seen - along the Mexican border.  ....and he'll get the Antarcticans to pay for it.

[tukkytuktuk]

While not getting longer, the original crack has continued to widen steadily, at a rate of about 3 feet (1 meter) per day

Why does this make me think of missus.

[ilostmypassword]

10 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

                          Plus, there's a dam effect.  Sometimes when a large dam fails, the first indications are just a crack and a small amount of water coming out.  Then later,  it bursts.  Antarctica is similar in some of its bays.  The ice which borders the open water is like a dam.  It could well happen that when the outer 'plug' is broken up, the immense force of the glacier will speed up and empty into the sea at a faster rate.

 

                         

Actually, that's what this is about:

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14191.abstract

[Dagnabbit]

Anti-science Trumpsters will say something like, "oh Delaware.  A small state.  Not nearly as big as Texas, so what's the big deal?  When you find an iceberg as big as Texas, let me know.  Then I'll sit up and take notice."

Thank you for your well thought out scientific opinion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[halloween]

It amazes me the number of people that want everything to stay like they remember it, when the only constant is change. If an iceberg the size of Delaware, or even Texas, melts, the sea level will not rise at all, it will only fill the void it displaces.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 5/4/2017 at 2:47 PM, daveAustin said:

Some simpleton will come along in a minute and say these blips have always occurred in the history of earth, but conveniently miss out the bit where people have caused this one.

Hmmmm. Given that many people agree that humans cause G W, I have to assume they never use anything powered by fossil fuel- so no oil powered cars, electricity or flying.

Edited May 6, 2017 by thaibeachlovers