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.

[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.