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Chain Reaction Shattered Antarctica's Larson B Ice Shelf

Posted by timothy on from the natural-phenomenon dept.

New submitter Jim McNicholas writes "At the end of the summer of 2002, all 3000 lakes on the Larsen B ice shelf drained away in the space of a week. And then the 2,700-square-kilometre ice shelf, which was some 220 metres thick and might have existed for some 12,000 years, rapidly disintegrated into small icebergs. The draining of one lake on an ice shelf changes the stress field in nearby areas, causing a fracture circle to form around the lake."

2 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Reporting on events in 2002? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, eleven years ago we knew that it had collapsed, but we didn't know why it had collapsed. This new model might both explain why, and perhaps predict future ice shelf collapse.

  2. Incidentally by symbolset · · Score: 5, Interesting

    13,000 years ago was the peak of the Holocene Optimum, when the Earth was warmer, glaciers smaller and the seas higher than today.

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