A deep crack on on Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf has nearly severed off one of the largest icebergs ever recorded:
One of the largest icebergs ever recorded — 2,500 square miles, about the size of Delaware — is about to break off Antarctica, according to the European Space Agency. The iceberg could speed up the break-off of other ice chunks, eventually eating away at a barrier that prevents ice from flowing to the sea.
The impending iceberg is being carved from one of the continent's major ice shelves, called Larsen C. Scientists have been monitoring Larsen C for months now, as a deep crack has slowly extended over the course of 120 miles. Only about three miles of ice are keeping the iceberg attached to the shelf, ESA says. No one knows when it will break off — it could be any moment — but when it does, the iceberg will likely be 620 feet thick (about the height of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York) and contain roughly 1 trillion tons of ice. It'll be drifting north toward South America, and could even reach the Falkland Islands. "If so it could pose a hazard for ships in Drake Passage," Anna Hogg from the University of Leeds, said in a statement.
Also at BBC.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday July 06 2017, @11:00AM (2 children)
Surely the cooling effect of that block of ice would only be very temporary whereas the greenhouse effect (probably responsible for that ice melting to begin with) is much more prolonged so the net result over the longer term is still increased thermal expansion. Is that why you qualified your statement with "at this moment"?
Of course the warmer air that is melting the ice will warm up the surface of the sea slightly at the same time as well.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday July 07 2017, @09:26AM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @10:30AM
This will decrease the albedo of the surface and increase it's heat capacity, but that isn't what the greenhouse effect refers to.