Larsen ice crack continues to open up

[WhiteTara]

Source: BBC

The rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf has grown a further 10km since 1 January.

If the rift propagates just 20km more, it will free a tabular berg one-quarter the size of Wales.

That would make it one of the biggest icebergs ever recorded, according to researchers at Swansea and Aberystwyth universities, and the British Antarctic Survey.

News of the lengthening crack in the 350m-thick floating ice shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula comes from the EU’s Sentinel-1 satellite system.

Comprising two spacecraft, this orbiting capability can continuously monitor Larsen C no matter what the weather is doing because its radar sensors see through cloud.

Their data indicates the fissure now extends for some 195km. But just how long it will take before the 5,000 sq km block finally breaks free is anyone’s guess, says Swansea's Prof Adrian Luckman.

"The rift tip has just entered a new area of softer ice, which will slow its progress," he told BBC News.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38686626

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Just in case we don't have enough on our plates.

[tenorly]

1. One more, and it's goodbye Miami.

A lot Republicans I've known over the years would actually relish the idea.

[WhiteTara]

2. Because Cubans live there?

[tenorly]

3. Because so many Hispanics in general do.

Whenever Miami has ever come up in conversation, I could usually count on a Republican to refer to it as "a Latin American city," "more like the third world," etc. - typically with a twitching lip and look of disgust.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. What's it got to do with Miami?

Isn't it just a mass of floating ice, and when it breaks away, will still be just a mass of floating ice?

[tenorly]

10. It will melt.

Once dissolved into the ocean, it'll raise sea levels a few more inches - and that's a lot for major metro areas built at sea level.

[Achilleaze]

4. And the Republicans & thier Cabal of Oily Comrades continue to lie and deny

well up their friggen gold-plated Mar a Lago

[Delphinus]

5. And all references

to global climate change are off the White House website. We are screwed.

[WhiteTara]

7. I saw that too.

[Blue_Tires]

6. Maybe we can take action in 2020, if we're lucky...

[Quackers]

8. K&R