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.”