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Slab of Antarctic ice shelf collapses amid warming
Reuters ^ | March 26, 2008 | Will Dunham

Posted on 03/27/2008 1:34:39 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit

"Block after block of ice is just tumbling and crumbling into the ocean," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said in a telephone interview.

"The shelf is not just cracking off and a piece goes drifting away, but totally shattering. These kinds of events, we don't see them very often. But we want to understand them better because these are the things that lead to a complete loss of the ice shelf," Scambos added.

Scambos said a large part of the ice shelf is now supported by only a thin strip of ice. This last "ice buttress" could collapse and about half the total ice shelf area could be lost in the next few years, Scambos added.

British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan said in a statement: "This shelf is hanging by a thread."

"One corner of it that's exposed to the ocean is shattering in a pattern that we've seen in a few places over the past 10 or 15 years. In every case, we've eventually concluded that it's a result of climate warming," Scambos added.

Satellite images showing the collapse began on February 28, as a large iceberg measuring 25.5 by 1.5 miles fell away from the ice shelf's southwestern front leading to a runaway disintegration of the shelf interior, Scambos said.

A plane also was sent over the area to get photographs of the shelf as it was disintegrating, he added.

Scambos said this ice shelf has been in place for at least a few hundred years, but warm air and exposure to ocean waves are causing a breakup. In the past half century, the Antarctic Peninsula has witnessed a warming as fast as anywhere on the planet, according to scientists.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images show that a large hunk of Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent, scientists said on Tuesday.

The area of collapse measured about 160 square miles of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, according to satellite imagery from the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad sheet of permanent floating ice that spans about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square km) and is located on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula about 1,000 miles south of South America.

"The warming that's going on in the peninsula is pretty clearly tied to greenhouse gas increases and the change that they have in the atmospheric circulation around the Antarctic," Scambos said.

With Antarctica's summer melt season coming to an end, the he said he does not expect the ice shelf to disintegrate further immediately, but come January scientists will be watching to see if it continues to fall apart.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: climatechange; globalwarming; metlingantartcica
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To: wolfpat
That sounds like, "We have no idea what's happening, so we just chalked it up to global warming so we can keep getting our grants."

DING, DING, DING, DING

We have a winner!

41 posted on 03/27/2008 4:59:10 AM PDT by Thermalseeker (Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a Mark of Folly. - B. Franklin)
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To: Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit

The problem with compromising your principles with the opposition in the hope you can shape the results in your favor is that it didn’t work in 1938. Ask Neville Chamberlain about that.


42 posted on 03/27/2008 5:03:24 AM PDT by Jonah Hex ("How'd you get that scar, mister?" "Nicked myself shaving.")
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To: ICE-FLYER
Oh and heres a picture of my "Office"

If you ever are in need of a right seater, I'm game......

43 posted on 03/27/2008 5:03:53 AM PDT by Thermalseeker (Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a Mark of Folly. - B. Franklin)
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To: Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit
The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad sheet of permanent floating ice...

I guess not.

44 posted on 03/27/2008 5:16:34 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze
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To: bmwcyle

45 posted on 03/27/2008 5:20:36 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (feh)
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To: reagan_fanatic

I like the little pop up but what does ONOZ mean?


46 posted on 03/27/2008 5:28:19 AM PDT by STONEWALLS
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To: STONEWALLS

Oh no plural?


47 posted on 03/27/2008 5:34:28 AM PDT by Big Giant Head (I should change my tagline to "Big Giant penguin on my Head")
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To: ModelBreaker
modeling...I'm just basically a poor ole dumb workin’ man but; It makes since to me that you could attach a sheet of glass to the side of a pool extending laterally through the surface layer and then throw a teenage pool party in the rest of the pool to simulate ocean storms. Now depending upon the thickness of the glass and its surface area it would eventually flex enough to cause fatigue and break off from its attachment point. This is elementary; these people ARE liars of an order beyond needing public flogging!
48 posted on 03/27/2008 5:39:30 AM PDT by Dust in the Wind (Fund A Red Meat Eatery Regularly)
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To: FTL

Oh, I think McCain truly believes this crap.

Listen to McCain talk. He’s on the edge of insanity.

If he wins, he may well be the first president impeached and removed because of diminished mental capacity.


49 posted on 03/27/2008 5:47:12 AM PDT by PA-RIVER
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Comment #50 Removed by Moderator

To: jsh3180

It was a good rant though.


51 posted on 03/27/2008 5:56:32 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit (The media . . .It's like a bookie that traffics in souls)
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To: reagan_fanatic

AHHHHHH, I feel so much better.


52 posted on 03/27/2008 5:58:11 AM PDT by bmwcyle (McCain has yet to give conservatives a reason to vote for him)
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To: newfreep
There's a man (gore) without a clue over there - telling me I've got to be 'ware.

Thanks. I put that out there and it took 38 posts to respond to it. At least someone eventually took the bait.

53 posted on 03/27/2008 5:59:14 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit (The media . . .It's like a bookie that traffics in souls)
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To: Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit
What?

Par-a-noia strikes deep

Into your life it will creep

It starts when your always afraid

Step out of line the Man come and take you away

;-)

54 posted on 03/27/2008 6:02:11 AM PDT by Jonah Hex ("How'd you get that scar, mister?" "Nicked myself shaving.")
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To: FrPR
Thankfully, what’s finally collapsing ain’t just the ice: it’s anthropogenic global warming science.

1. I see no evidence of this statement whatsoever.

2. Your statement that saying that carbon trading would be tax on productivity will require further explanation. That isn't how I understand the economics and I have a wee bit of training in that dismal science. In fact, I would argue the exact opposite. Carbon trading would reward efficiency and high energy-productivity technologies. If you are keen on strengthening the ChiComs and their satellites feel free to leave me out. If low-carbon requirements stifle their growth and lengthen the dominance of the West I see that as a good thing.

55 posted on 03/27/2008 6:03:35 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit (The media . . .It's like a bookie that traffics in souls)
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To: Jonah Hex; newfreep

Good. But too late. newfreep picked up on it first.


56 posted on 03/27/2008 6:06:28 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit (The media . . .It's like a bookie that traffics in souls)
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To: Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit
I think I read on another thread, that they've discovered some undersea volcanic activity going on in the area.

I don't supposed any warming from underneath could be considered as a cause. Naw, because cause you can't collect awards and Nobel prizes; rape nations and corporations for $$$ due to man made volcanic warming.

57 posted on 03/27/2008 6:08:53 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit
(sigh) Always a tad late... I blame it on global warming. ;-)
58 posted on 03/27/2008 6:09:21 AM PDT by Jonah Hex ("How'd you get that scar, mister?" "Nicked myself shaving.")
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To: Jonah Hex
Always a tad late... I blame it on global warming. ;-)

On this count I do not believe it is global warming. Rather, you are experiencing Global SLOWING. It seems there has been a disruption in the space-time continuum. I am applying for a grant to study it, but I have a pretty solid theory which rests upon the strong likelihood that it is the fault of the current President and Vice-President. Together they have created a vortex.

59 posted on 03/27/2008 6:29:43 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit (The media . . .It's like a bookie that traffics in souls)
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To: STONEWALLS
I like the little pop up but what does ONOZ mean?

Quirky webspeak for "OH NO!!!!"
60 posted on 03/27/2008 6:45:16 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (feh)
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