Breaking News: Giant Iceberg.

[TalkingDog]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/02/100226_iceberg_wt_sl.shtml

They say the 2,500 square kilometre iceberg, floating south of Australia, could block an area that produces a quarter of the world's dense and very cold seawater, known as bottom water.

This water drives ocean currents, and scientists say weather patterns could be affected in decades to come.

and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8538060.stm


So 950 square miles is about as big as Alachua County in Florida.

[KittyWampus]

1. sounds like the premise of a thriller movie. Let's see, in the movie the military

would be employed since the iceberg is considered a threat to national security. They'd blow up the damned thing... after that chaos ensues.

I'm not sure which way the earth's climate would lurche according to scientific fact but I'll go with a deep freeze.

The heros of our story are a group of northern indigenous peoples who've lived with traditional technologies and they trek into the frozen wasteland of Europe and N. America teaching people how to survive.

Here on Long Island, the residents who haven't died yet FINALLY get their revenge on the deer that have been making lives miserable before the Big Freeze by learning how to herd them and use them for food and pelts.

[TalkingDog]

2. But will it star Bruce Willis or is his Rheumatiz too bad for the cold? n/t

[KittyWampus]

3. oh, I didn't know this was being shot on location. Apparently you've implied I have a big budget.

[Larkspur]

9. Now add a giant comet heading towards the iceberg and voila!

You have a blockbuster or Snowball Earth version 2.0!

:evilgrin:

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Somehow I knew Florida would be involved in our ultimate demise.

[KittyWampus]

5. How do they pick the geographical reference points, anyway?

[TalkingDog]

7. Well, when I typed 965 square miles into the search engine,

Florida was at the top of the list.

How could I pass it up?

[Cetacea]

6. That's normal this type of year.

:sarcasm:

[tularetom]

8. Won't it move? Won't it melt?

I'm not a scientist, but it seems to me that the reason the Mertz iceberg broke off was because it was hit by the B9B iceberg which floated toward it after it broke off itself. So won't both bergs simply continue to move until they float away and stop blocking the flow of the deep water. In the meantime, they will begin to decrease in size as they float away from the larger ice mass. I'm sure there are formulas to calculate the rate of melting given the temperature of the surrounding sea water.

[Sal Minella]

11. Heard on BBC that the new one is snagged on shallow bottom, therefore not moving.

If it's backing up the cold water, melting might happen way more slowly than would be good for anything with a 98.6 F body temp.

[DrDan]

10. oh brother - just what we do NOT need in Florida - warmer currents