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Giant Ice Shelf Snaps

Posted by Zonk on from the as-long-as-the-movie-doesn't-feature-sandra-bullock dept.

Popo writes "Sattelite images have revealed that an ancient 66 square-kilometer ice shelf, the size of 11,000 football fields, has snapped off from an island in Canada's arctic. The Ayles Ice Shelf was one of 6 major shelves remaining in Canada's arctic and is estimated to be over 3000 years old. The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 km away picked up tremors. Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor."

4 of 529 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor."

    So what was the cause 30 years ago?

    It's a fair question, yes? Like when I hear "such and such place recorded the highest temperature in 150 years this week!" I think "What caused the previous high 150 years agp?" My brain has a pesky habit of continually asking questions. All those X-Files episodes, I guess. Trust no one. Ideologues hate me.

    1. Re:Well... by FhnuZoag · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As for the 150 years thing, it's because they had no thermometers 150 years ago, so their records only go back 150 years.

      And in this case, the 30 years figure is because observations of this kind done with satellites has only been possible for 30 years, and any prior event would be impossible to measure.

    2. Re:Well... by rucs_hack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm no environmental scientist, but surely there would need to be many such events measured before we could really start saying what caused it.

      Is this a natural cycle? How long has this particular event been brewing? Have there been any other factors involved that can be discovered? These questions need to be answered before causes can be decided.

      I am concerned about global warming, but I am also concerned about political motivations determining hypothesis, or special interest groups leaping on events and trumpeting them as being caused by their particular bugbear.

      Such things do not good science make, and we need good science to get to grips with the causes of these events, lest we wander too far from the truth of it.

  2. Re:I can't wait..... by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's common for the Extreme Right, and their fellow travelers in the Media, to invent disasters from selected data so they can save us all by the application of Fascism, at the expense of our personal liberties, of course.

    Extremists are extremists.. plain and simple.
    The only difference is which liberties they want you to surrender & why.

    To be fair, sometimes they ask you to do it for the common good
    and not because of some boogeyman.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!