Connecticut-sized Wilkins Ice Shelf Hanging By A Thread - Would Be 7th Collapse In 30 Years In Area

[hatrack]

A swath of ice bigger than Connecticut is hanging on "by a thread" and is likely to break away from Antarctica, according to the British Antarctic Survey. A "thin strip of ice hanging between two islands" is now all that is holding the Wilkins Ice Shelf fixed.

An iceberg 25-miles long and about 1.5-miles wide has already broken away in recent weeks. Despite marked warming (0.9-degrees F per decade) in this part of Antarctica over the last half-century, the imminent breakup of the 5,000-square-mile ice shelf defies predictions that it would last decades longer. This would be the seventh ice shelf in the region to collapse in the past 30 years. The Larsen B ice shelf, which disappeared in a month's time in 2002, is the best known. Others include the Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Wordie, Muller and Jones ice shelves.

“Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened," said Prof. David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey. "I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread – we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be." While the breakup of the ice shelf won't affect sea level (imagine an ice cube melting in a glass of water), "it is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region,“ Vaughan said. The disintegration of the ice shelf could lead to sea-level rise if the glaciers locked behind it on land now slides into the sea (imagine putting another ice cube in a full glass of water).

The edge of the shelf crumbled into the sky-blue pattern of exposed deep glacial ice that has become characteristic of climate-induced ice shelf breakups such as the Larsen B ice shelf breakup in 2002, according to Ted Scambos, of the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Antarctic summer has just ended, so further disintegration of the ice shelf is not expected this year. The Arctic summer saw unprecedented melting of sea ice.

EDIT

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/antarctica-ice-shelf-47032508

[Hugabear]

1. How are the global-warming deniers explaining this?

Sharks with friggin lasers on their heads?

Penguins with jackhammers?

Aliens with space mirrors?

[Delphinus]

3. Love, love, love your questions!!!

Made me laugh out loud!!! :rofl:

[FREEWILL56]

4. Hey, this is a possible answer those idiots would think up.

You see there are many penquins down there and they all followed this one path too much year after year cutting the ice until it can't stay attached anymore. It's either something like that or a bunch of whales beached themselves on one side breaking it off. Any excuse is better than the slight temperature rise globally that has been shown to be true. If the truth didn't interfere with profits they would be in agreement quite as aloofly as then they still wouldn't care. Did they care very much when Katrina and Rita hit? See the cause didn't matter as it was a fact that those 2 hurricanes devasted a good portion of the gulf coast without them giving a sh*t, with the underlying cause of those hurricanes being irrelevant to people who don't care in the first place.

[BOSSHOG]

2. This is nothing more then liberal fear mongering

Some people who really know what they are talking about are just trying to scare people and this is nothing more then the oppression of ignorant yet patriotic and god-fearing americans who have conservative values. Just ask any person with conservative values and access to a microphone and they will tell you what they BELIEVE! You should be ashamed of yourself for posting the truth.

Global Warming is a myth.

[XemaSab]

5. .