Toner News Mobile › Forums › Latest Industry News › *NEWS*BIG CHUNK OF ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF FALLING APART
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AnonymousInactiveBig chunk of Antarctic ice shelf falling apart
An
iceberg breaks off from Antarctic’s Knox Coast in January 2008.
Satellite images by the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice
Data Center have shown that Antarctica’s massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has
begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming.Antarctica’s massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has
begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming, satellite
images by the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data
Center showed.The collapse of a substantial section of the
shelf was triggered February 28 when an iceberg measuring 41 by 2.4
kilometers (25.5 by 1.5 miles) broke off its southwestern front.That movement led to disintegration of the
shelf’s interior, of which 414 square kilometers (160 square miles)
have already disappeared, scientists say.The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad plate of
permanent floating ice 1,609 kilometers (1,000 miles) south of South
America, on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula.Now, as a result of recent losses, a large part
of the 12,950-square-kilometer (5,000-square-mile) shelf is supported
by a narrow 5.6-kilometer (3.5-mile) strip of ice between two islands,
scientists said.
Satellite
image by NASA and the US Geological Survey shows the the ice shelves,
mountains and glaciers on Antarctica. Satellite images by the
University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center have shown
that Antarctica’s massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating
under the effects of global warming.“If there is a little bit more retreat, this
last ‘ice buttress’ could collapse and we’d likely lose about half the
total ice shelf area in the next few years,” NSIDC lead scientist Ted
Scambos said in a statement.“Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on West
Antarctica yet to be threatened. This shelf is hanging by a thread,”
echoed David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey, which contributed
data on the break-up.Jim Elliott, who was onboard a British
Antarctic Survey Twin Otter aircraft sent to video the extent of the
damage, said the scene looked like a bomb site.“I’ve never seen anything like this before — it was awesome,” he said in a BAS statement.
“We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage.
“Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small
houses, look as though they’ve been thrown around like rubble — it’s
like an explosion.”
A
deep crevass forms on one of Antarctica’s ice shelfs. Satellite images
by the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center have
shown that Antarctica’s massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun
disintegrating under the effects of global warming.Antarctica has suffered unprecedented warming
in the last 50 years — with several ice shelves retreating and six of
them collapsing since the 1970s.“Climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula has
pushed the limit of viability for ice shelves further south, setting
some of them that used to be stable on a course of retreat and eventual
loss,” Vaughan said.Vaughan said the Wilkins breakout would not affect sea levels because it was already floating when it broke off.
“But it is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region.”
Over the past half century, the western
Antarctic Peninsula has experienced the steepest temperature increase
on Earth, 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 Farenheit) per decade.“We believe the Wilkins has been in place for
at least a few hundred years, but warm air and exposure to ocean waves
are causing a breakup,” said Scambos, who first spotted the
disintegration in March.With the Antarctic summer drawing to a close,
scientists do not expect the ice shelf to further disintegrate in the
next several months.
A
climate research station in Antarctica.Satellite images by the
University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center have shown
that Antarctica’s massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating
under the effects of global warming.“This unusual show is over for this season,”
said Scambos. “But come January, we’ll be watching to see if the
Wilkins continues to fall apart.”Ultimately, ice shelf breakup in the Antarctic
— more than 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) have been
lost over the past 50 years — could significantly increase ocean
levels around the world.In 1995 the Larsen A Ice Shelf — 75 kilometers
(47 miles) long and 35 kilometers (22 miles) wide — disintegrated,
fragmenting into icebergs in the Weddell Sea.In March 2002, a NASA satellite captured the
collapse of Larsen B, which had a surface area of 3,850 square
kilometers (1,486 square miles), was 200 meters (656 feet) high, and
packed in 720 billion tonnes of ice. It took just 30 days to break
apart.According to some calculations based on the
present sea level rise of three millimeters per year (0.11 inches),
ocean levels could rise by 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) by the end of the
century. -
AuthorMarch 26, 2008 at 1:27 PM
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