Researchers Spot Huge Split In Antarctic Ice Shelf

[hatrack]

Source: CSIC - Spain's National Research Council

Madrid - Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf is rapidly disintegrating, Spanish scientists reported on Tuesday, with potentially ominous implications for climate change.

An ice sheet of 14,000 square kilometres has broken off from the Wilkins Shelf, and has itself broken into several large icebergs, according to a statement from Spain's National Research Council (CSIC).

CSIC scientists aboard the Hesperides maritime research vessel spotted the disintegration, about 1,600 kilometres south of the southern tip of South America.

If their observation is confirmed, only a small tip of the huge 16,000 square kilometre ice shelf would still be attached to Antarctica.



Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1460070.php/Researchers_spot_huge_split_in_Antartic_ice_shelf_

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Link to original Spanish-language press release:

http://www.csic.es/index.do (top-center story)

[Olney Blue]

1. This can't be good.

[callous taoboy]

2. But, my right-wing brother says we're entering another ice age!

:eyes:

[thereismore]

9. Sure, those icebergs are coming our way! nt

[Autumn]

3. Not good n/t

[marksmithfield]

4. Not an unusual occurrence

during the history of the earth.

[Barrett808]

6. Especially during deglaciations, but according to Milankovic, we should be RE-glaciating

Very slowly, of course. But instead, deglaciation is accelerating.

Human carbon emissions are the culprit.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

5. Consequences of a split?

If it detaches completely, what are the consequences? Will there be a large increase in sea level?

I suppose that will depend on how thick it is.

[1620rock]

8. Little or no increase in sea levels, most of the ice is under water and is already displaced.

[thereismore]

11. That's the good news. The bad news is that reflectivity will change (more heat gets absorbed). nt

[Thor_MN]

21. However, the ice sheet was likely holding back a glacier that will now be moving faster off land

Any sea rise that does occur will be from the ice that was supported by land that now moves into the ocean. The ice in the shelf that was floating does not increase sea levels, but the ice that it held back will.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. The consequenses depend on how many glaciers it is holding back

from the sea.

The ice shelf floats on the water, so it would not itself raise sea levels - but ice shelves also act as a brake holding back glaciers from running from the land into the sea, and with the ice shelf gone the glacier (speculating, not knowing the particulars of this shelf and what feeds it) could increase its flow speed from a few meters a year to dozens of meters a year, thus putting ice into the ocean at a faster rate than it builds on land, thereby raising sea levels.

This is the, what, the 3rd major ice shelf collapse in the past 8 years? There was the Ross shelf in 2006, I think it was, and Larson B in 2001.

but all this 'global warming' malarkey is just meant to scare us into going socialist, doncha know.

[hatrack]

12. No sea level change - this took place on an ice shelf, already afloat

The issue is what happens to the ice sheets located inland of where Wilkins will once have been.

[AlbertCat]

15. Thank God

some of you know what's going on. I read on AOL an argument about how (are you sitting?) the sea levels would actually go DOWN because ice has less mass than water so when the ice melts....blah blah blah. It's like these jerks don't know what is happening in their own glass of diet coke....as the ice melts it doesn't overflow the glass or retreat from the rim. It stays at the same level. It's like 5th grade science!

[leftchick]

7. photo from a year ago

:(

I just found this from July of 2008....




Breaking up: A British Antarctic Survey photo showing a crack in the Antarctic ice shelf (British Antarctic Survey/AFP: Jim Elliott)

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. That's a serious crack - and as mentioned in other posts, deterioration is exponential

.
.
.

the more that breaks away, the more the sun and currents work on the remainder

HOUSTON

we have a problem . . .

[biopowertoday]

14. thanks. when i first glanced quick i thought it was a highway as

the lines are so even.

[glinda]

16. Yes. Caused by the "Ice Road Truckers" series.

[wroberts189]

17. Is that not where the emperor penguin lives? nt

[FarCenter]

18. In the Arctic, sea ice coverage is about the same as 2006-2007

http://www.nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Summer of 2007 was the minimum coverage on record.

[Turborama]

19. Past the point of no return? Thanks for sharing

:kick: & R

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=271149&mesg_id=271149">BBC Horizon: Global Dimming - "a film that demands action"


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x272772 ">CNN:'Feedback loops' acting like a "foot on the accelerator of global warming"

[happyslug]

20. Don't worry, we are just entering the most dangerous time of year

If the Wilkins Ice Sheet breaks off, it will be between now and April 1st. On March 23, the Antarctic enters is Autumn season, and the Ice pack starts to expand, thus ending most chances of any breakup this year. Now sometime the Ice pack continues to decline for a few days after the advent of Autumn in the Antarctic but by April 1st we will know if a major disaster has occurred or we can wait another year.

From what I have read, the Wilkins is NOT blocking any glaciers or other Ice Flows, the main concern is that the white reflective face of the Ice Sheet will be replaced by Ocean water. The white ice sheet reflects Sunlight and is one of the reason the Antarctic is so cold, lost of that reflectiveness could lead to increase temperatures in the water coming in contact with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Report the Wilkins is NOT blocking any ice flows:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/environmental_law/2009/01/wilkins-ice-she.html

One fear is that during this time of year you can have ice melts that then flows into cracks in the Ice Sheets. The water then freezes, and since water EXPANDS when it freezes and freezes from top to bottom (Except in extremely Cold water, not relevant here) you can have a situation when water freezes on top, the ice form by that freezing acts as a clamp on the rest of the water so it can NOT push upward, from where it came, instead puts pressure on both sides of the crack making it worse. Which permits more water to enter the newly increase in width crack and the whole process starts all over again (Until water STOPS melting which is about April 1st in most of the Antarctic).

We shall see what happens, not much concern of the Wilkins breaks up, the real concern is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, if it went, world wide ocean levels would go up 20 feet.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

22. Thanks for the interesting explanation...

... it furthered my appreciation for what is occurring in the antarctic. :-)