Huge ice island could pose threat to oil, shipping (Hugh and Series Arctic Ocean NewZ!!!)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/10/10 | Karl Ritter - ap

[NormsRevenge]

STOCKHOLM – An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland.

Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes — and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenland iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912.

It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires, heat and smog in Russia and killer floods in Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked last week — creating the biggest Arctic ice island in half a century — may symbolize a warming world like no other.

"It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo.

[BipolarBob]

I guess it’d be too much trouble to put a warning beacon on it. Instead let’s spend millions studying and fretting about it.

[KoRn]

""It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo."

I'd bet that we could melt that thing in a split second, if we REALLY wanted to.

[Rebelbase]

This ship is unsinkable....

[NormsRevenge]

Coincidence , the big solar flare on the Sun? *-\

Great Ball of Fire
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA

On August 1, 2010, almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of the news-making solar event on August 1 shows the C3-class solar flare (white area on upper left), a solar tsunami (wave-like structure, upper right), multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more.

This multi-wavelength extreme ultraviolet snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun's northern hemisphere in mid-eruption. Different colors in the image represent different gas temperatures. Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from the solar flare impact on August 3, 2010, which sparked aurorae as far south as Wisconsin and Iowa in the United States. Analysts believe a second solar flare is following behind the first flare and could re-energize the fading geomagnetic storm and spark a new round of Northern Lights.

[Da Coyote]

No mention whatsoever about the record cold (and accompanying deaths) south of the equator.

Could this be intentional?

Naaaaaaa........

[jwparkerjr]

re: melt that thing in a split second, if we REALLY wanted to

Or reduce it to several million ice cube sized pieces of ice.

[Blueflag]

I am not certain , but I think it’ll show up on RADAR ...

Maybe put one of those little aluminum RADAR reflectors, or four of them, on it so ships don’t collide with it.

BTW, it’s Bush’s fault.

[Repeal The 17th]

I wonder if I could go “claim” it and live on it!
That would be cool - figuratively and literally.

[Paladin2]

The peak temperatures of Summer have passed. Soon enough it will be Winter Solstice Time.

[umgud]

Carpet-bomb it. Would make great practice.

[oneolcop]

An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland.

BUSH'S FAULT!

[Hugin]

I just saw a Scandinavian scientist who one of the top experts yesterday flatly state it had nothing to do with any global warming. The cause isn’t air temprature, it’s water temprature due to warm currents that break off ice all the time. This is a much larger than normal chunk, but it happens every now and then, the last time being in the 50s. It will break apart into smaller chunks before it gets into the major shipping lanes, and with modern tracking ships can simply go around it. The interviewer was so disapointed that he wouldn’t blame it on global warming.

[colorado tanker]

Wow, a big iceberg calved in midsummer! We must be doomed, I tell ya.

[cicero2k]

This is modern journalism in action.

What with radar, sattelite imagery, GPS, internet; if this causes a shipping problems then said company should not be in the business.

Or they are pirates.

[WOBBLY BOB]

[DoughtyOne]

It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet,...

There is severe weather somewhere every single year. Yes, it's even Biblical.

I'm so tired of people trying to game us based on trumped up weather stats. There needs to be a $5 reward for "back to nature" pelts.

[Dusty Road]

Get me 300,000 barrels of Crown Royal Black, 1,000,000 plastic cups and 25,000 ice picks. Me and some old boy’s from Texas will have that thing knocked down to size by the end of September, of and toss in some brisket and red beans please!

[capt. norm]

DUH! I'm pretty sure it will show up on their radars>

Any shipping running without radar has no business in those waters.

[Kieri]

Given its potential for the destruction of commerce, I want to call it the “Obamaberg.”

[capt. norm]

No mention whatsoever about the record cold (and accompanying deaths) south of the equator. Could this be intentional?

When I read about penguins freezing to death, I knew there was some SERIOUS cold involved.

[abortionisalwaysmurder]

melt that thing in a split second, if we REALLY wanted to

Or reduce it to several million ice cube sized pieces of ice.

---

Radioactive ice cubes, the best kinsd to use at such things a s the democrat convention, white house socials and of course nancy pelosis water glass.

[texmexis best]

Don’t forget the Pecan wood for the grillin’.

I might just join you.

[JD_UTDallas]

We need Bruce Willis and some scrappy ruff necks to drill to 800 feet!!! I’m thinking a couple of B-43’s would thaw that nicely

[sportutegrl]

Tow it to Louisiana, this time of year the drive thru daquiri huts start running out of ice.

[hinckley buzzard]

The iceberg is from the northern coast of Greenland, the whole length of Baffin Bay and hundreds of miles more before approaching Titanic territory. In "the worst case scenario" we're all dead anyway, so I'd write this crap off to hysterics.

[Nailbiter]

The latest we are all gonna die story from the LSM

[hinckley buzzard]

You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo

Bullsh*t. Arctic winter will stop it dead in its tracks till Spring, and maybe then some depending.

[Lloyd227]

Mount diesel engines on the thing and drive it to Saudi Arabia.

oh wait, that was from a movie wasn't it? :-)

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Er, uhm, how can I say this ..... NO!!!!

Pure, BS from everyone quoted in this hysterical piece of cr&p.

The “ice island” is INSIDE a narrow, twisting fjord, now about 1-1/2 miles from even the OPENING of the fjord in Greenland. (See satellite photos, www.wattasupwiththat.com )

The “island” is no larger than Manhattan - which will permit it to BECOME a large iceberg - WHEN it gets out of the fjord - IF it can! - and WHEN it starts melting as it goes south (many hundreds of miles) towards the shipping lanes.

But right now? It’s trapped and can do nothing but melt. Or re-freeze into the tip of the glacier since the Arctic temperatures at 80 degrees north latitude (which cuts across north Greenland) are trending back towards 0.0 Celcius, and will go below freezing in about two more weeks.

[barb-tex]

Wasn’t there a novel. or maybe a news article about towing ice bergs to Saudi?
barbra ann

[tet68]

I wouldn’t be surprised if some enterprizeing person
moved a hundred Katrina housing units on to the flow
and rented them out as summer homes
“close to the coast”.
All the fresh water and ice you need.

[Yardstick]

I think they should build an ice palace with a landing strip. Turn it into the ultimate exclusive club.

[Jack Hydrazine]

"The “ice island” is INSIDE a narrow, twisting fjord, now about 1-1/2 miles from even the OPENING of the fjord in Greenland. (See satellite photos, www.wattasupwiththat.com )"

[Sunshine Sister]

Thanks for the laugh! Had not seen that one!

[Publius6961]

"It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with ..."

Anyone who can't resist hyperbole and make an asinine statement like that, is simply an ignoramus who hasn't enough brain cells to grasp that this has been going on every few years as long as humans have had the ability to track large icebergs from space.

[Repeal The 17th]

Dang, it is just a big chunk of ice that is stuck up in there
amongst a whole bunch of other chunks of ice.
How’s a feller gonna make a claim on that and live on it?
I thought it was all out there in the ocean
and some kind of big hazard to ships and navigation and ery’thin.
I am so disappointed.

[Wuli]

The “birthing” process (or sometimes called “calving”, when a big glacier gives “birth” to a little one, at “oceans waters edge”) of glaciers has two components.

The inland buildup of the snow/ice pack creates pressures, both downward and horizontally, which leads to the bottom-most layer of the glacier obtaining a “frozen” state that is more like water, and with the pressure from all the weight from above, it begins to slide - and where does water slide to, it slides to any point that is lower and lower eventually reaches the sea.

The calving takes place by the assistance of the ocean and its temperature, which at any time is warmer than the glacier. “Warmer” (than ?average? sea temperatures do assist the “calving” process, but they don’t create it. The massive body of the glacier does that, no matter what the temperature of the ocean is at the edge of the glacier.

[Jack Hydrazine]

The way the LSM talks it does sound like its out there bobbing around in the North Atlantic bearing down on ships and oil platforms ready to do as much damage as possible.

[17th Miss Regt]

The interviewer was so disapointed that he wouldn’t blame it on global warming.

Maybe the interviewer would have been happy if the blame had been assigned to the malevolent effects of the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the brutal Jewish oppression of the Palestinian women and children. Not as good as global warming, but it will do in a pinch. Oh, and it is all the fault of that Zionist son of a pig and a monkey George W. Bush!

[muffaletaman]

“According to the BBC, Prof. Andreas Muenchow from the University of Delaware said this is the largest Arctic iceberg to calve since 1962. “

This berg is 100 square miles. The one in 1962 was 230 square miles.

That seems not to get very much mention - that this one is still only 43% the size of the last “big” one, about fifty years ago.

Not even half as big.

Just not a big deal, really... after 50 more years of GAW.