Giant iceberg breaks off from Antarctic glacier

[venom400]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35597621/ns ... nvironment

TO put this in perspective , 1000 SQ miles is huge ! is the size of a state !

Source MSNBC:

SINGAPORE - An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event that could affect ocean circulation patterns.

The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile) iceberg broke off earlier this month from the Mertz Glacier's 160 km (100 miles) floating tongue of ice that sticks out into the Southern Ocean.

The collision has since halved the size of the tongue that drains ice from the vast East Antarctic ice sheet.



"The calving itself hasn't been directly linked to climate change but it is related to the natural processes occurring on the ice sheet," said Rob Massom, a senior scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, Tasmania.

Both organizations, along with French scientists, have been studying existing giant cracks in the ice tongue and monitored the bumper-car-like collision by the second iceberg, B-9B.

This 97 km long slab of ice is a remnant of an iceberg of more than 5,000 sq km that broke off, or calved, in 1987, making it one of the largest icebergs ever recorded in Antarctica.

The Mertz glacier iceberg is among the largest recorded for several years. In 2002, a iceberg about 200 km long broke off from Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf. In 2007, a iceberg roughly the size of Singapore broke off from the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica.

Massom said the shearing off of the ice tongue and the presence of the Mertz and B-9B icebergs could affect global ocean circulation.

The area is an important zone for the creation of dense, salty water that is a key driver of global ocean circulation. This is produced in part through the rapid production of sea ice that is continually blown to the west.

"Removal of this tongue of floating ice would reduce the size of that area of open water, which would slow down the rate of salinity input into the ocean and it could slow down this rate of Antarctic bottom water formation," he said.

He said there was a risk both icebergs would become grounded on banks or shoals in the area, disrupting the creation of the dense, salty water and the amount that sinks to the bottom of the ocean, he said.

Oceans act like a giant flywheel for the planet's climate by shifting heat around the globe via myriad currents above and below the surface."

This is scary , specially when we are so close to 2012 .

I hope nothing happens.

[SlicerITST]

This is scary , specially when we are so close to 2012 .

....

[Amazing Matheja]

Look what we did to our planet..
Unfortunatly,our worldwide policy (talking about all the countries) and economy kills our planet more and more each days...But they're so afraid to loose their "leadership"...
I think we're all doom if nothing is done...And what has to be done is huge : changing economical rules,political rules,etc...
But people that are leading us are old and they just don't take all this seriously...They are more worried by their next lies...And by how make us spend more money...And by the next contract to sign...
But what will we do with money when all will be gone?...
Somewhere,on the road of our History,we took the wrong direction...

Edit : I didn't read well : I first understood it was an abnormal Iceberg break,but it seems to be a natural processus here...
But i'll stay with my words!

[venom400]

This is scary , specially when we are so close to 2012 .

....

HAHA Whay?!

[GOA MASTER MDMA]

i suppose slicer didn´t believe james cameron

[SlicerITST]

2012 end of the world believers make my head spin. For them i hope the earth ends on 01/01/2013.

Anyways, the climate problem is big and in my opinion unsolvable. Eventually the earth will balance itself out. Mankind will probably not be around to witness that then. Conditions will change and mankind cannot evolve quickly enough to cope with the changing conditions. Every 100.000 years every animal over 25kg on earth died. We where always living in borrowed time anyways. We might have made that process faster for us but it was always going to be inevitable. That doesnt mean you have to go crazy with polluting the environment. But changing our society drastically wont help one bit either.

Its much the same as staying away of all the temptations in life for a full lifetime only to find out you only live a month longer then your neighbor who enjoyed every temptation in life.

[jayl0ve]

I'm glad I know how to swim...

[Amazing Matheja]

...
But changing our society drastically wont help one bit either.
...

I do think so...But to tell ya,i simply hate the way the society is nowadays...

...
Its much the same as staying away of all the temptations in life for a full lifetime only to find out you only live a month longer then your neighbor who enjoyed every temptation in life.

Except that i think that here,on a "planet time" ( ),months can rather be hundreds of decades...
-But that's only what i believe,i'm not an expert at all...You could be 200% true slicy

Edit : "2012 end of the world believers" I never heard of this...I find this as ridiculous as...a son of a god giving a visit to us...

[GOA MASTER MDMA]

I'm glad I know how to swim...

me too -at least i have a surfboard

[Amazing Matheja]

I'm glad I know how to swim...

me too -at least i have a surfboard

I have a little boat (a "420" made of plastic) and i know how to fish
Edit : And i've seen Man VS Wild!

[jayl0ve]

You really surf? Can you surf anywhere in Germany (North Sea, Baltic Sea... )? Seems like it would be really cold and really small waves

[SlicerITST]

He only said he had a surfboard. Not that he could surf .

[djarvik]

I'm glad I know how to swim...

I was about to say: learn to swim.

Looks like mom is fixin to fix it all.

[picachu211]

Oh, I am too young...And I can only float...

[djarvik]

Oh, I am too young...And I can only float...

you do know what that means?