Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the fire-up-the-John-Deere dept.

According to a December 1st article from NASA:

On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf....

The IceBridge scientists measured the Larsen C fracture to be about 70 miles [113 km] long, more than 300 feet [91 m] wide and about a third of a mile [a half of a kilometer] deep. The crack completely cuts through the ice shelf but it does not go all the way across it – once it does, it will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware.

The British Antarctic Survey's Halley VI research station is currently located on the Larsen C ice shelf. Fortunately, the station was designed to move. A December 7th article from The Guardian gives more information about that station and the upcoming move:

The British Antarctic Survey's Halley VI research station has recorded data relevant to space weather, climate change, and atmospheric phenomena from its site on the Brunt Ice Shelf shelf since 2012....

The new site, nicknamed Halley VI A, was identified during in-depth site surveys in the 2015-16 Antarctic summer. Now that winter has passed, the relocation team are preparing to tow the station 23km [14 miles] to its new home using large tractors.

The Telegraph outlines the timeframe for the move:

In 2012, satellite monitoring of the ice shelf revealed the first signs of movement in the chasm that had lain dormant for at least 35 years and, by 2013, it began opening at an alarming pace of one mile per year. If the base does not move, it could be in danger of tumbling into the chasm by 2020.

To make matters more time critical, in October, a new crack emerged 10 miles [16 km] to the north of the research station across the route sometimes used to resupply the base.

The team has just nine weeks to relocate operations, before the harsh winter begins, making it difficult to move the structure amid complete darkness, plummeting temperatures and gale-force winds.

Additional information about the Halley VI research station is available from the British Antarctic Survey.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:43PM

    by Anne Nonymous (712) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:43PM (#438540)

    If all that pesky ice would just melt off, we could build the damn station right on rock and not have to worry about moving it.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Funny=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:49PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:49PM (#438541)

    > melt off

    Silly dangerous idea...
    Where would my private helicopter get the pristine ice that my private jet flies to my private mountain island so I may have chilled drinks off the chests of the top models who decorate my yacht? Puls I like my beach as is, and rising waters would reduce the size of my property.

    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday December 08 2016, @04:38AM

      by butthurt (6141) on Thursday December 08 2016, @04:38AM (#438620) Journal

      Hawaii used to have glaciers. [wattsupwiththat.com] Recently it had heavy snowfall. [cleveland.com] Perhaps the glaciers will regrow.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @03:21PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @03:21PM (#438743)

        Hawaiian Glacier is my favorite strain of weed, man.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @11:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @11:10PM (#438547)

    Don't worry. Trumps gonna bringing back coal! Burn baby, BURN!

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Wednesday December 07 2016, @11:56PM

      by DECbot (832) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @11:56PM (#438556) Journal

      He does have a point, you need more energy to run enough air conditioning units to cool down the earth. That's what happens when you open the window during summer, you let the cool air out. But those idiots opened a hole in the ozone layer anyway and now look at the mess, global warming. Hopefully the people in charge have enough sense to not run the A/C continuously and freeze up the condenser.

      --
      cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @12:24AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @12:24AM (#438560)

        So instead of a space elevator we're going to have a space heatsink for all the A/C units? What a gyp.

      • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday December 08 2016, @05:36AM

        by butthurt (6141) on Thursday December 08 2016, @05:36AM (#438637) Journal

        So if I take hair spray and if I spray it in my apartment which is all sealed and-- you're telling me that affects the ozone layer?

  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:22AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:22AM (#438577) Journal

    The Americans did just that on Ross Island.

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McMurdo_Station.jpg [wikimedia.org]

    The other American station is at the pole; there's little chance it will drift off into the sea.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_Pole_Station [wikipedia.org]