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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the alert-the-titanic dept.

The rift in the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica has grown by 17km in the last few days and is now only 13km from the ice front, indicating that calving of an iceberg is probably very close, Swansea University researchers revealed after studying the latest satellite data.

The rift in Larsen C is likely to lead to one of the largest icebergs ever recorded. It is being monitored by researchers from the UK's Project Midas, led by Swansea University.

Professor Adrian Luckman of Swansea University College of Science, head of Project Midas, described the latest findings:

"In the largest jump since January, the rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf has grown an additional 17 km (11 miles) between May 25 and May 31 2017. This has moved the rift tip to within 13 km (8 miles) of breaking all the way through to the ice front, producing one of the largest ever recorded icebergs.

The rift tip appears also to have turned significantly towards the ice front, indicating that the time of calving is probably very close.

The rift has now fully breached the zone of soft 'suture' ice originating at the Cole Peninsula and there appears to be very little to prevent the iceberg from breaking away completely."

Researchers say the loss of a piece a quarter of the size of Wales will leave the whole shelf vulnerable to future break-up.

Larsen C is approximately 350m thick and floats on the seas at the edge of West Antarctica, holding back the flow of glaciers that feed into it.

Professor Luckman added, "When it calves, the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10% of its area to leave the ice front at its most retreated position ever recorded; this event will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula.

We have previously shown that the new configuration will be less stable than it was prior to the rift, and that Larsen C may eventually follow the example of its neighbour Larsen B, which disintegrated in 2002 following a similar rift-induced calving event.

The MIDAS Project will continue to monitor the development of the rift and assess its ongoing impact on the ice shelf. Further updates will be available on our blog (projectmidas.org),and on our Twitter feed"

The team say they have no evidence to link the growth of this rift, and the eventual calving, to climate change. However, it is widely accepted that warming ocean and atmospheric temperatures have been a factor in earlier disintegrations of ice shelves elsewhere on the Antarctic Peninsula, most notably Larsen A (1995) and Larsen B (2002).

They point out that this is one of the fastest warming places on Earth, a feature which will certainly not have hindered the development of the rift in Larsen C.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by tizan on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:09PM (6 children)

    by tizan (3245) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:09PM (#521641)

    The problem of explaining the catastrophic changes that is going to happen in simple terms...
    In simple terms when ice in a glass of water melts the water level does not rise it even goes down a bit because ice contract when melting.
    Then why are we worried with global warming...it is the planet is a complex system of sea currents, atmospheric currents, micro and macro climate and the biosphere etc...and disrupting this balance cannot be predicted in simple terms.
    People who modelled the planet in simulation are going to have a better idea of what's going to happen than people who have watched a glass of water with ice melting...but tell that to the glass of water experts...they are the one advising the gubermint these days.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:56PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:56PM (#521667)

    10% of land has glacier ice. Antarctica and Greenland etc.

    Estimates if it all melted is 70m rise.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:38AM (#521690)

      Hmm, that's 230 feet in Murcan. My lawn is about 750 feet above sea level. I won't have to worry about moving, but I think I'm going to have to get used to telling masses of refugees to get off my lawn.

      I'm not worried, though. Lots of ACs here have given me plenty of witty one-liners to use against refugees in addition to the usual ways of telling somebody with a higher UID to get off one's lawn. I'm certain that once they see I've trained in the ways of telling refugees what to do with themselves here on SN, they'll have no choice but to walk back to where they came from and quietly drown.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:06AM (3 children)

    by edIII (791) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:06AM (#521684)

    I don't know how you could be that wrong, but you are. If you believe the simple terms crap.

    Google has a map where you can see sea level rise and what happens. Not all of the ice is in the water, as the other poster said. This is decided science already, where it is even more ludicrous to be a denier. The amount of ice has been calculated, the amount of water has been calculated, and basically, we have math and science telling us these things. Any arguments about ice cubes in a glass of water are fucking hilarious. I have the response argument; Pop a waterbed on the 2nd floor of an apartment building, and the apartment below will get all the water.

    Even if the water level didn't rise, you could massively fuck up the ocean currents with the release of the water from land which can shut down the ocean conveyor belts [noaa.gov]. That is a relatively simple system driven on temperature and salinity. We very much can model it, understand it, and predict what will happen. Permanent disruption is of course not possible, but there will be trillions in damages in the short term while the "system balances out". The conveyor belt is related to seasonal phenomena like El Nino and La Nina, and those two are already blamed for billions upon billions in damages.

    It's really not mysterious. We may not be able to accurately predict the weather, but we can sure as fuck predict ocean conveyor belt shutdown if Greenland lost all of their ice. Not to mention a significant sea level rise of 6.5-7 meters [usgs.gov] that would devastate certain cities and states in the U.S. You can kiss the Everglades good bye, kiss portions of New York good bye, say good bye to New Orleans, .etc. That's just Greenland. Antarctic Ice sheets exists too, and that puts it in catastrophic terms. THAT will kill Manhattan and flood Central Park. Large parts of the world will be under water, specifically the coastal areas where most of the populations, ports, and wealth are.

    Yeah, ice cubes in a glass :D LOL

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 2, Touché) by dwilson on Wednesday June 07 2017, @05:06AM

      by dwilson (2599) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 07 2017, @05:06AM (#521772) Journal

      I think you should re-read the message you replied to a bit more carefully.

      --
      - D
    • (Score: 2) by tizan on Wednesday June 07 2017, @09:46PM (1 child)

      by tizan (3245) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @09:46PM (#522238)

      Nope i donot believe in the simple thing... i was quoting a "reasonable" person that did not believe that global warming will have the predicted effect when she told me look at a glass of water and ice melting !

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday June 08 2017, @06:48PM

        by edIII (791) on Thursday June 08 2017, @06:48PM (#522734)

        Heh. Sometimes I can't tell anymore :)

        You can have the most intelligent, reasonable, and nice people completely lose their minds when it comes to this stuff (for political and money reasons) and everything turns into Magic, God's Will, or the explanations for 4 years olds to explain why science is simply being hysterical and leftist.

        While you were being funny, a Senator brings in a snowball into Congress like it's a rational and scientific argument for his fellow thieves colleagues.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.