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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday February 19 2017, @02:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the like-adding-ice-to-a-drink dept.

Climate Central reports

[...] A massive iceberg roughly 225 square miles in size--or in more familiar terms, 10 times the size of Manhattan--broke off [from the Pine Island Glacier] in July 2015. Scientists subsequently spotted cracks in the glacier on a November 2016 flyover. And in January, another iceberg cleaved off the glacier.

Satellite imagery captured the most recent calving event, which Ohio State glaciologist Ian Howat said " is the equivalent of an 'aftershock'" following the July 2015 event. The iceberg was roughly "only" the size of Manhattan, underscoring just how dramatic the other breakups have been.

[...] The ocean under Pine Island Glacier's ice shelf has warmed about 1°F since the 1990s. That's causing the ice shelf to melt and pushing the grounding line--the point where the ice begins to float--back toward land, creating further instability.

[...] The glaciers [such as the Pine Island Glacier] and ice shelves [such as the Larsen C ice shelf, which is on a death watch] help hold back a massive ice sheet on land. Their failure would send that ice to the ocean, pushing sea levels up to 13 feet higher than they are today.

[...] Cutting carbon pollution presents the only path forward to stave off the worst impacts of a melting Antarctic.


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  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday February 20 2017, @02:25AM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Monday February 20 2017, @02:25AM (#469136)

    Offtopic? Really? I comment on a continent losing a big chunk of it's weight with a stupid diet (paleo diet practitioners died around age 30), and offtopic is the best you can do?

    / I wanna know who moderates comments, and how they moderated it
    // there are some really stupid people here
    /// or people with huge sticks up their ass

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1) by dry on Monday February 20 2017, @03:32AM

    by dry (223) on Monday February 20 2017, @03:32AM (#469152) Journal

    I'm not the moderator and perhaps you were going for funny but a continent losing what, 0.01% of its mass is compared to you losing a large amount of mass doesn't seem to be particularly on topic, not does the subject.
    BTW, where do you get the idea that Paleo diet practitioners die at 30? Even in Paleo times, if they survived childhood disease and accidents including war, they'd survive into their 60's easily and sometimes into their '80's and '90's.