Massive ice shelf 'may collapse without warning'

[Dover]

Wednesday November 29, 2006

The Ross Ice Shelf, a massive piece of ice the size of France, could break off without warning causing a dramatic rise in sea levels, warn New Zealand scientists working in Antarctica.

A New Zealand-led ice drilling team has recovered three million years of climate history from samples which gives clues as to what may happen in the future.

Initial analysis of sea-floor cores near Scott Base suggest the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed in the past and had probably done so suddenly.

The team's co-chief scientist, Tim Naish, told The Press newspaper the sediment record was important because it provided crucial evidence about how the Ross Ice Shelf would react to climate change, with potential to dramatically increase sea levels.

"If the past is any indication of the future, then the ice shelf will collapse," he said.

"If the ice shelf goes, then what about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet? What we've learnt from the Antarctic Peninsula is when once buttressing ice sheets go, the glaciers feeding them move faster and that's the thing that isn't so cheery."..cont'd

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10412954&ref=emailfriend

[Eurobabe]

1. Well, forget that vacation in the Maldives n/t

[DesertRat]

2. Truly frightening. k&r

[nitpicker]

3. It's not just the Antarctic

There have been various reports recently about Greenland ice melting in spots and creating slippery layers atop rock,moving THOSE ice sheets faster towards the sea...

Is it time yet to invite the Netherlands dike builders in yet to put dikes around DC? Hmm... that MIGHT be why some of the federal agencies are looking for space on the uplands surrounding DC. Advance disaster planning, anyone?

[ashling]

6. Advance?

Advance disaster planning, anyone?

You must be thinking of some other government. LOL

[warrior1]

4. how many does that make

Beside Ellesmere Island wasn't there another that broke?

[skyblue]

5. DK Canada Ice Shelves decreased much as 90% since 1906 per article

http://www.boston.com/news/world/canada/articles/2006/12/29/huge_ice_shelf_breaks_free_in_arctic/

[progressoid]

7. Oh blah blah blah. Wanna hear something important?

They're coming out with a new Indiana Jones movie!!!!

[hootinholler]

15. Really???

Will it have melting nazis too?

Don't tease us like that!

-Hoot

[Dover]

8. The enormity of these events kinda trumps other life dramas doesn't it?

Can we even register the vast repercussions in our tiny, self-involved little brains?

[InvisibleTouch]

9. Picture the opening scene of....

..."The Day After Tomorrow." That's what we're looking at - and a result at least equally horrendous, even if it doesn't play out exactly as shown in the movie.

http://www.amazon.com/Day-After-Tomorrow-Widescreen/dp/B00005JMXX/sr=8-1/qid=1167579232/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-5512430-4778318?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

[warrior1]

10. What's in store and what has all ready happened.

London-on-Sea: the future of a city in decay - This is if the sea level rises 1m




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/27/nlondon27.xml

and in the US

http://www.thedanielislandnews.com/artman/publish/article_1695.php

It's happening now.



http://www.thedanielislandnews.com/artman/publish/article_1695.php

[CrispyQ]

11. Holy shit!

These graphics are worthy of their own post.


on edit: The article said if the Ross Ice Shelf collapses, scientists predict a rise of 5m, some say as much as 17m. ~gasp!

[DixieBlue]

20. Holy cow, that graphic is scary as hell ...

I wish more people would wake up to what is happening.

[KAT119]

12. 1 Meter = 3.2808399 feet or 39.3700787 inches

Had to look up the precise measurement in inches/feet and this is catastrophic at 7 meters=51= feet!!!

[KAT119]

13. OOps...That would be the possible 17 meters=51 ft. rise of ocean/not 7.

[warrior1]

14. riddle me this batman

I live in Sacramento which is inland about a 100 miles and is close to sea level. We have rivers/and a delta near by. Also Folsom Dam. Sacramento wouldn't be safe either am I correct?

[mcscajun]

16. Probably not. Take a look at this

http://discoverourearth.org/student/sea_level/index.html

The Quest tool there enables you to select varying levels of sea rise against different regional/global maps and see the impacts.

[Peggy Day]

17. Too much information-it is new years eve by the way,

so if I'm not in my truest form, forgive me. My brain saw that and said-maybe later-too complicated for present state.

[Platonium]

18. So much for drama...no sudden rise

in sea levels would result from this. The Ross ice shelf already floats in water. Its collapse would increase the speed at which the glaciers slide into the ocean, causing sea levels to rise much faster than current climate models predict. I predict that scientist will continue to shorten the expected time it will take for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, as they adjust their models to the findings.

I guess that a lot of people will have wet feet before mid-century.

[Dover]

19. Models of Sea Level Rise along the Atlantic and vulnerable lands

I think this prediction of these rises by 2100 is optimistically distant in its time frame, and will be revised as melting accelerates and other factors kick in.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5C3J4E/$File/maps.pdf

State by State assessment:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterPublicationsSLRMapsIndex.html#table1

MAPS - http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterPublicationsSLRMaps.html

[Dover]

21. People need to organize to get the word out using graphics and information

like the one shown in the post (above) that ran in the London paper. You have to make it tangible and present it in real terms for people to get it. We need some Paul Reveres of global warming to ride through the streets along the coastal areas and bring this message home. Apparently the harsh lessons of New Orleans have not managed to penetrate people's consciousness of the depth and breadth of these events and their quickening pace.

We can't wait for government to build this ark. They are too wrapped up in bureacracy and corrupted by development/commercial interest payola to give it the kind of emergency treatment it deserves.