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Iceberg the Size of Delaware, Among Biggest Ever Recorded, Snaps Off Antarctica (marketwatch.com)

A giant iceberg about the size of Delaware that had been under scientists' watch has broken off from an ice shelf on the Antarctica Peninsula and is now adrift in the Weddell Sea. From a report: The 2,200 square-mile, trillion metric-ton section of the Larsen C ice shelf "calved" off sometime between Monday and Wednesday, a team of researchers at Swansea University's Project MIDAS has reported, citing imaging from NASA's Aqua MODIS satellite instrument. Scientists have tracked the crack for more than a decade and they warned in June that the section was "hanging by a thread." Its break, from Antarctica's fourth-largest ice shelf, changes the border shape of the peninsula forever even though the remaining ice shelf will continue to grow. "The iceberg is one of the largest recorded and its future progress is difficult to predict," said professor Adrian Luckman of Swansea University, lead investigator of the MIDAS project. "It may remain in one piece but is more likely to break into fragments. Some of the ice may remain in the area for decades, while parts of the iceberg may drift north into warmer waters."

11 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. It's Time... by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

    To build a new, unsinkable, super cruise liner ship. At least four chimneys will be required.

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    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  2. Three different sources, three different units by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I firstly read about this in a Spanish newspaper claiming that it was bigger than Madrid. Afterwards, I found out in Twitter that it was bigger than London. And now I know that it is as big as Delaware! And the worst part is that I don't even have a reasonably accurate idea about how big it is! LOL.

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    Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    1. Re:Three different sources, three different units by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Funny

      The future of Antarctica is mobile.

    2. Re:Three different sources, three different units by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'll clarify it for you: it's 17,242.0571 Libraries of Congress.

    3. Re:Three different sources, three different units by avandesande · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to phys.org--

      It created an iceberg of about 5,800 square kilometres (2,200 square miles), with a volume twice that of Lake Erie, one of the North American Great Lakes.

      Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-...

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  3. now's Saudi Arabia's chance by turkeydance · · Score: 4, Funny

    they've always wanted one.

  4. Re:Good for Russia by AC-x · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, it's hard to have a have rational discussions on the merits of AGW when politicians toss snowballs around the senate as proof that climate change isn't happening.

    The 5 hottest years on record have all been since 2010. 11 of the 12 hottest years have been since 2000.

    Local cold snaps don't disprove that, can you point to any researchers who have claimed that climate change will prevent local cold snaps? The average temperatures speak for themselves, expect to boneheads and oil shills.

    Don't want to hear it? Then you'll have to prove the work of a vast number of scientists working for a vast number institutes in a vast number of countries all wrong.

    Oh and in case anyone feels the need to claim scientists are just protecting their research grants, the only reason this research is needed is because politicians are pushing back on the findings. If the world had acted on carbon emissions in the 80s like it did on CFCs then there wouldn't be the need for this research would there?

  5. Re:Good for Russia by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The logic is, if it can be tied to AGW, it is and is "Climate Change". If it doesn't fit AGW, it is "weather".

    The difference between weather and climate is time. What we know is the oceans are getting warmer and that's a change in climate. However, one of the outcomes of climate change is more extreme weather patterns. It's climate change regardless if it's good weather or bad weather because weather is a local phenomenon.

    This is why it is hard to have rational discussions on the merits of AGW, causes and effects. The Greening Of Africa is another great example ignored.

    Getting particular predictions incorrect does not diminish the point that the climate is changing. What we do know for sure is that the oceans are getting warmer at an alarming rate.

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  6. Re:Good for Russia by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stubborn folk stay behind in Eritrea and Ethiopia where there is little food.

    Poor folk stay behind in Eritrea and Ethiopia where there is little food.

    FTFY.

    </truth>

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  7. Re:Nothing to see here ... by citylivin · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Nothing to see here folks.. Move along."

    Actually in this case, its more emblematic than anything. From the BBC article:

    "What is the significance of the calving?

    In and of itself, probably very little. The Larsen C shelf is a mass of floating ice formed by glaciers that have flowed down off the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula into the ocean. On entering the water, their buoyant fronts lift up and join together to make a single protrusion.

    The calving of bergs at the forward edge of the shelf is a very natural behaviour. The shelf likes to maintain an equilibrium and the ejection of bergs is one way it balances the accumulation of mass from snowfall and the input of more ice from the feeding glaciers on land. ...

    But Larsen C today does not look like its siblings. Prof Helen Fricker, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told BBC News: "The signs we saw at Larsen A and B - we're not seeing yet. The thinning we saw for Larsen A and B - we're not seeing. And we're not seeing any evidence for large volumes of surface meltwater on the order of what you would need to hydro-fracture the ice shelf.

    "Most glaciologists are not particularly alarmed by what's going on at Larsen C, yet. It's business as usual.""

    http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

    Obviously its great to have massive events like this to draw attention to the cause, and keep climate change at the front of peoples minds, but it seems like this isnt that big a deal. It isnt raising sea levels or single handidly causing giant problems by its calving alone.

    Just part of the program these days.

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    As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
  8. Re:Good for Russia by hawkfish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The 5 hottest years on record have all been since 2010. 11 of the 12 hottest years have been since 2000.

    Only if you accept adjusted temperature readings..

    That would explain why some skeptics at Berkeley didn't accept them, made their own measurements and got the same results.

    --
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