Huge Antarctic ice block poised to snap off

Creag

Creag

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When it finally calves from the Larsen C ice shelf, one of the biggest icebergs in recorded history will be set adrift -- some 6,600 square kilometres (2,550 square miles) in total, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

The iceberg's depth below sea level could be as much as 210 metres (almost 700 feet), or about 60 storeys, it said.

"The crack in the ice is now around 200 kilometres (125 miles) long, leaving just five kilometres between the end of the fissure and the ocean," the ESA said in a statement.

"Icebergs calve from Antarctica all the time, but because this one is particularly large its path across the ocean needs to be monitored as it could pose a hazard to maritime traffic."

Scientists tracking the berg's progression expect it to break of within months.

The Larsen C shelf will lose more than 10 percent of its total surface area.

The rest of the article: Daily Maverick
 
Creag

Creag

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Another link, perhaps the original: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-huge-antarctic-ice-block-poised.html

The real danger is from inland glaciers.

Ice shelves float on the sea, extending from the coast, and are fed by slow-flowing glaciers from the land.
They act as giant brakes, preventing glaciers from flowing directly into the ocean.

If the glaciers held in check by Larsen C spilt into the Antarctic Ocean, it would lift the global water mark by about 10 centimetres (four inches), researchers have said.

The calving of ice shelves occurs naturally, though global warming is believed to have accelerated the process.

Warming ocean water erodes the underbelly of the ice shelves, while rising air temperatures weaken them from above.
Click to expand...
 
scudsucker

scudsucker

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Don't be disingenuous. We have only 60 or so years of reports of giant icebergs, granted (more like 100 or so, but will accept your figure )

But we have the full weight of thousands of years of evidence pulled from ice cores drilled all over the Arctic and Antarctic.

Human causation of global warming is unfortunately real and accurate. And scientifically verified.
 
A

Arthur

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scudsucker said:
Don't be disingenuous. We have only 60 or so years of reports of giant icebergs, granted (more like 100 or so, but will accept your figure )

But we have the full weight of thousands of years of evidence pulled from ice cores drilled all over the Arctic and Antarctic.

Human causation of global warming is unfortunately real and accurate. And scientifically verified.
Click to expand...
:D

Space-based cams are very recent, a mere femto-blink in geological time.

The drilled cores are almost all from the bits that remain, not the broken-off pieces, which melt away in the ocean.

Verified AGW? Dream on. At best, only GW.
 
rietrot

rietrot

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The flat earh is expanding as the earths population grows to accommodate everyone. That's part of why the earth needs to warm so that we can live in Antarctica as well
More parts of the ice wall will break off and soon we will have farmland available in Antarctica.

Since we are already throwing "man made global warming" around. I thought I might just as well post something equally ridiculous.
 
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