Antarctic ice shelf 'hanging by thread': European scientists

[NoGOPZone]

Source: AFP via Yahoo! News

New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.

Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is "hanging by its last thread" to Charcot Island, one of the plate's key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080710/sc_afp/warmingantarcticaice

[WCGreen]

1. If it's floating, that is good...

The sea level won't rise. But it will decrease the salinity and that is potentially devastating.

Or so I have been led to believe...

[Canuckistanian]

4. A lot of this ice started on land

And it moves very slowly until it breaks off into the sea.

With the collapse of major ice sheets, that movement of ice is accelerated.

[greenman3610]

20. the salinity at the south pole is not as big an issue

the concern for a while has been salinity in the north atlantic as Greenland
melts, but most folks have kind of backed off that.
What worries people about these ice shelves at the south pole is that
when they break up, it's like taking the "cork out of the bottle" in terms of the
land based ice that is backed up behind them... which starts to move faster...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=polar-ice-shelf-break
The breakup and melting of floating ice has no direct effect on global sea levels. But an ice shelf is thought to act as a “cork in the bottle,” damming the flow of the land-based glacier that slowly feeds the shelf in the sea. When such a “cork” is removed, the glacier lurches forward. “Within a few months” of a breakup, explains glaciologist Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the glacier “accelerates significantly, and within a year or two, it can be moving up to four times as fast as it moved when the ice shelf was intact.” As Bell puts it, the result is that “more ice cubes get into the ocean,” which does raise sea leve

[jody]

2. If it's hanging, it's already in the sea so melting will not raise the sea level, right? n/t

[Vincardog]

13. IT can melt and change the salinity change the currents and radically alter the climate

Or is sea level the only impact that might concern you?

[jody]

14. In this instance I asked about sea level since I did not know whether the shelf was partially on

land or not.

As a layperson, I'm vaguely familiar with the expected changes in salinity, current changes, etc. but only enough so I can listen with a modicum of knowledge to discussions on such topics.

Thanks, :hi:

[The Doctor.]

16. Hey, for those of us who just bought future beach front property in Kansas it is!

(JK)

Go easy on us simple folk with our innocent questions. O8)

[Canuckistanian]

3. Some pics

[blues90]

18. What's that blue stuff on the ice?

Looks like tidy bowl that drifted up there.

[Canuckistanian]

19. They're color-enhanced satellite pics

So, it's not really that blue in real life.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[truthisfreedom]

7. Not in this quantity. The Arctic is almost gone. This shelf has never broken off before.

Nice first post.

[RenuldusMagnus]

10. Really?

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&opt=-l&lat=90&ns=North&lon=0&ew=West&alt=1000000&img=learth.evif

looks like plenty of ice there to me.

[progressoid]

12. R.I.P.

[The Doctor.]

17. That had to be a record. n/t

[Indenturedebtor]

9. It's all a matter of degrees

Decreasing the salinity rapidly in one area could shut down currents which carry oxygen to warmer waters and warmer waters to colder areas. Salty water sinks faster and is an important factor in driving the conveyor.

Yes ice has been breaking off into the ocean for millions of years but it has also been replenished at a more or less equal rate. To put it crudely - If I poop faster than I eat, my body will shrink.

I'm beyond panic... I'm terrified. And the band played on.

[defendandprotect]

11. Contrary to everything the scientists are telling us . . .

there has been no ice breaking off in these proportions ---

And, yes, mixing of salt and fresh water creates problems ---

[jbane]

6. Ice shelf breaks just in time for...

Bush's stand up routine at the G-8 meeting where he says "goodbye from the worlds biggest polluter" then starts pumping his fist in the air...this is no joke, that's what he did...TODAY!

[peacebird]

15. please tell me you are kidding?

good grief....

[Daemonaquila]

21. Oh, Jeebus H... It's True.

"President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

President Bush made the private joke in the summit's closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry. He had given some ground at the summit by saying he would "seriously consider" a 50 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050."


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/bush-to-g8-goodbye-from-the-worlds-biggest-polluter-863911.html

[peacebird]

22. more like a one finger "salute" - the middle finger.....

and now with General Betrayus in charge we can expect the attack on Iran.....

[benld74]

8. IceRoad Truckers next to get lay off notices!