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100-Sq.-Mile Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland Glacier

suraj.sun sends word of a 100-sq.-mile (260-sq.-km) ice island that broke off of a Greenland glacier on Thursday. "The block of ice separated from the Petermann Glacier, on the north-west coast of Greenland. It is the largest Arctic iceberg to calve since 1962... The ice could become frozen in place over winter or escape into the waters between Greenland and Canada. ... [NASA satellite] images showed that Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 70-km-long (43-mile) floating ice shelf. There was enough fresh water locked up in the ice island to 'keep all US public tap water flowing for 120 days,' said Prof Muenchow." The Montreal Gazette has more details and implications for Canadian shipping and oil exploration, along with this telling detail: "the ice island’s thickness [is] more than 200 metres in some places... [or] half the height of the Empire State Building." The NY Times has a good satellite photo of the situation.

9 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just one question for the Algoreithm experts.. by Golden_Rider · · Score: 2, Funny

    to lure settlers there. not because at anytime it was green and/or warm.

  2. Re:In terms of rum & cokes, by EdIII · · Score: 2, Funny

    I believe that if we were to host an endless block party on it with 10,000 people, using the ice for drinks, martinis, and smoothies, we could do so far approximately 42 days.

  3. Nukes by Alcoholist · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let's nuke the bastard. That'll take care of it. It worked in Armageddon.

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    Bibo Ergo Sum.
  4. Re:Clearly a sign of AGW by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    skepticalscience.com

    It's not fair that these guys took the word "skeptical" which is supposed to mean "don't believe in Global Warming, Evolution, Keynesean economics or Obama's birth certificate and made a site that takes global warming seriously.

    That's bait and switch right thar.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. NOT A SCREAMING LOON by nten · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not a loon, it really is an envirocommunist worldwide conspiracy to overthrow the illuminati oil-lords. That only seems far fetched to those who uses non-rectal sources for their news. Step back a bit, look at the situation as a whole, and forget about the day to day details (facts at a high enough rate are just noise), then pull out a theory. Your colon can come up with interesting patterns, and facts are unnecessary ingredients for their assemblage.

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    refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
  6. Re:Who are you refering to exactly? by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

    Tribalism, mostly. People naturally divide the world into us vs. them on any given subject.

    Well I am certainly in the anti-tribalism group!!!!!

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    Qxe4
  7. Re:Clearly a sign of AGW by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Funny

    I really like your straw man attacks on someone's straw man attacks.

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    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  8. Re:In terms of rum & cokes, by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Funny

    You, sir, have astounding powers of estimation.

    A more likely explanation would be that I did the same math. But thanks for double checking my work ;-)

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    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  9. So you throw poo at everyone. Smart. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So you throw poo at everyone. Smart.

    "Oh look at me, I'm sooo moderate!".

    Arsehole.