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Yeah man, like that libtard who said the Earth revolves around the sun.
You're Trump?Yeah man, like that libtard who said the Earth revolves around the sun.
When, in fact, the Earth revolves around me.
You're Trump?Yeah man, like that libtard who said the Earth revolves around the sun.
When, in fact, the Earth revolves around me.
Yeah man, like that libtard who said the Earth revolves around the sun.
When, in fact, the Earth revolves around me.
thought those were flies?When, in fact, the Earth revolves around me.
An area of the Larsen C ice shelf, about as big as the U.S. state of Delaware or the Indonesian island of Bali, is connected by just 13 km (8 miles) of ice after a crack has crept about 175 kms along the sheet, with a new jump last month. "It's keeping us all on tenterhooks," Andrew Fleming, of the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters of the lengthening and widening rift, adding "it feels like a niggling tooth" of a child as it comes loose. Ice shelves are flat-topped areas of ice floating on the sea at the end of glaciers. The Larsen C ice is about 200 meters (656 ft) thick with about 20 meters jutting above the water.
An aerial photo released by NASA shows a rift in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf
Big icebergs break off Antarctica naturally, meaning scientists are not linking the rift to man-made climate change. The ice, however, is a part of the Antarctic peninsula that has warmed fast in recent decades. "There is no other evidence of change on the ice shelf. This could simply be a single calving event which will then be followed by re-growth," Adrian Luckman, a professor at the University of Swansea in Wales, told Reuters. His team reckons the ice will break off within months, perhaps in days or years.
Risks for shipping
The ice, about 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles), will add to existing risks for ships as it breaks apart and melts. The peninsula is outside major trade routes but the main destination for cruise ships visiting from South America. In 2009, more than 150 passengers and crew were evacuated after the MV Explorer sank after striking an iceberg off the Antarctic peninsula. Fleming said the Larsen C iceberg would add an extra pulse of ice and would be hazardous especially if smaller chunks reached usually ice-free areas in the South Atlantic, rather than staying close to Antarctica's coast. The Larsen B ice shelf nearby broke up in 2002 and some of the ice drifted into the South Atlantic towards the island of South Georgia, east of Argentina.
In 2000, the biggest iceberg recorded broke off the Ross ice shelf and was about the size of Jamaica at 11,000 square kms. Bits have lingered for years. The loss of ice shelves does not in itself affect sea levels because the ice is already floating. But their disappearance lets glaciers on land slip faster towards the ocean, thereby raising sea levels. NASA estimates that the Larsen C ice shelf pins back ice on land that would add a centimeter (0.4 inch) to world sea levels, which have gained about 20 centimeters in the past century.
Giant Iceberg Like 'Niggling Tooth' Set to Crack off Antarctica
Recent weeks have seen it shuffle back and forth next to the Antarctic ice shelf from which it broke away. But the latest satellite imagery now indicates the near-6,000 sq km block is swinging out into the Weddell Sea. A wide stretch of clear water has opened up between the berg's southern end and the remaining Larsen shelf structure, suggesting A-68 is set to swing around and head north. This is the direction the Weddell currents should take the iceberg. Polar experts expect the trillion-tonne block to essentially bump along the shelf edge until it reaches the great eastward movement of ocean water known as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
Widening gap: The picture contains data gathered on 13 and 16 September
This would then export what is one of the largest bergs ever recorded out into the South Atlantic. How far A-68 actually gets along this predicted path is anyone's guess, however. The berg already shows evidence of fragmentation at its edges. These bits - they carry the designation A-68b, A-68c, etc - all still float close to their parent. But in time they will get separated, and it is entirely possible that big segments with deep keels could get anchored in shallow waters and become semi-permanent "ice islands". A-68 calved during mid-winter and it required radar satellites - such as Europe's Sentinel-1 spacecraft - with their unique ability to pierce cloud and darkness to keep track of developments.
With the return now to longer days in the Antarctic, opportunities are increasingly opening up for high-resolution optical satellites to take a close look at the state of the berg. And new imagery from the Spanish Deimos-2 spacecraft shows how the initial sharp edges of the block's northern-western corner have been lost. Scientists are not just looking at the berg; they also continue to monitor the Larsen Ice Shelf. They are checking to see if its behaviour has changed since the calving. The shelf is the floating protrusion of glaciers coming off the Antarctic landmass, and the ejection of such a large section of its structure could potentially trigger further fracturing or a change in the speed of ice flow. So far, however, there is little evidence of either.
When A-68 moves clear of its birth position it will reveal seafloor that probably has not been free of ice cover for 120,000 years - during the peak of the last warm phase in Earth's history known as the Eemian. The area has already gained protected status from the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). This gives scientists priority access and keeps fisheries activity at bay for a minimum of two years. Previous research in locations uncovered by departing bergs has found new species. Expeditions to visit A-68 this coming Antarctic summer season are in the planning stage.
Big Antarctic iceberg edges out to sea
Chile's CONAF forestry service shared photos on social media of the enormous block of blue-white ice, which measured 350 meters (1,148 feet) long by 380 meters (1,247 feet) wide, as it floated free in waters of a glacial lagoon near the southern tip of the South American continent.
Tourists visit the Grey Lake, located in the 230,000-hectare Torres del Paine National Park in the Chilean Patagonia, about 1,960 km south of Santiago
Park officials at Chile's Torres del Paine National Park, home to the glacier, said such ruptures were rare and had not occurred since the early 1990s.
Torres del Paine is one of Chile's most popular tourist attractions, famous for its mountain views and visited by more than 115,000 tourists annually, according to CONAF.
Large Iceberg Breaks Free From Glacier in Southern Chile
Yeah, well what if it isn't? What if it does lose a big chunk that crashes down into the ocean causing a big splash and a wave. A wave, you idiot, that could cause Guam to topple over, friggin' capsize for God's sake!!!not just fake news, very fake, schizophrenic news!
As Trump mulls Paris climate deal, Antarctica could soon break off a Delaware-sized iceberg
An iceberg measuring some 350 by 380 meters (1,150 by 1,250 feet) broke from the Grey glacier in far southern Chile in late November. The size of the break surprised local scientists who monitor the glacier. "Events like this are part of a short-term irreversible tendency" due to rising global temperatures, said Raul Cordero, a climate change expert at the Universidad de Santiago.
View of the Grey glacier at the Torres del Paine National Park in Magallanes, Chile
The iceberg now seems like a large chunk of ice, "but it will become a threat" since it will move out to sea and break up into smaller pieces, said Ricardo Jana, a glaciologist at the Chilean National Antarctic Institute. Given its size, the smaller icebergs likely to break off can create problems for area navigation, Jana said. The icebergs will also contribute to a rise in the sea level, "putting coastal communities at risk for possible flooding," Jana said.
The Grey glacier is located at the Torres del Paine National Park, some 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) south of the capital Santiago. Over the past 30 years the glacier — now measuring some 270 square kilometers — has lost about two square kilometers of ice. The glacier is part of the Southern Patagonia Ice Fields, the third largest land-based ice field after Antarctica and Greenland. The Ice Fields straddle southern Chile and Argentina.
Southern Chile Iceberg Splits From Glacier, Threatens Navigation
