Incredible NASA image taken from outer-space of the soon to be born iceberg the size of New York.
A 19-mile crack in Pine Island Glacier’s ice is growing at a surprising rate. NASA scientists speculate that 310 square miles of glacier ice could soon break off from mainland Antarctica forming the world’s largest iceberg.
NASA blog: That data was collected, as expected. What wasn’t expected was the crack.
Pine Island is one of the largest and fastest-moving glaciers in Antarctica. It has captured scientists’ attention for years because of the rate at which its ice is thinning. The ice shelf thins, the grounding line retreats and the speed of the glacier increases. As it sits on bedrock below sea level — West Antarctica is the last place with such so-called “marine glaciers” — and drains about 10 percent of the West Antarctica ice sheet, scientists are concerned about the impact Pine Island’s continued thinning will have on sea level.
“It’s part of a natural cycle, but it’s still very interesting and impressive to see up close,” said IceBridge project scientist Michael Studinger. “It looks like a significant part of the ice shelf is ready to break off.”
The IceBridge team made a preliminary calculation that the area that could calve in the coming months covers about 310 square miles (800 square kilometers), Studinger said.
The team on the DC-8 observed the crack running across the breadth of the ice shelf. Credit: Michael Studinger/NASA
Peter Rejcek writes:
Bindschadler had previously calculated the propagation of earlier iceberg-releasing cracks at less than 50 meters per day. This crack must have moved much faster across the ice shelf, he said via e-mail.
“The characteristics of the PIG crack that I find surprising are the fact that it is so far across the ice shelf after not having been observed up until the end of last season,” he said.
The location of the crack is near where past rifts have appeared in the ice shelf, according to Bindschadler. He estimated that a new, rather large iceberg will probably form in the coming months, if not weeks.
“I hope that our field team will have enough time to get onto the ice shelf and set up GPS receivers before the calving event,” Bindschadler said. “We’d like to measure if the ice shelf notices the loss.”
Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the Boulder, Colo.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, agreed that it’s likely that the crack is part of a natural cycle.
“These are cyclical, occurring every few years, very similar in size and even shape,” said Scambos via e-mail. “As a cyclical process, they are not part of the real climate-change/ice-shelf disintegration story.”
In 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated in spectacular fashion, losing about 3,250 square kilometers of ice in a single season. More recently, the Wilkins Ice Shelf on the western side of the peninsula has started to collapse. Scientists believe both events are linked to climate change, though some researchers have suggested that wave action from distant storms could have helped break up the Wilkins Ice Shelf.
“If something different happened this time; for example, the pace of calvings changed, or this one was farther upstream from the past ones, then it might signal some major change in the Pine Island system,” said Scambos, adding that the area is changing in other ways, but the rate of calving has been steady over the last few decades.
This is clearly climate change. When are people going to wake up!
Even if the earth is warming the average daily temperature is still well below freezing in Antarctica (and the North Pole) which I learned in 1st grade doesn’t melt or crack ice, its just a natural phenomenon you freaking conspiracy hippies! So excuse me while I go outside and use an entire bottle of hairspray to perfect my Glen Plake mohawk.
especially true since there is no seasons in antarctica and its allways winter… NOT! think out of your little box, there is a summer in antarctica that melts snow and ice just like everywhere else on earth, its just very short.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Antarctica
nevertheless it is affectd by climate change!
way to use wikiwhacky as your source
Dude, get the facts right. Glen uses gelatin to stand his hawk.
the world will collapse 2 days before the day after tomorrow!
Think of all the margaritas you could make with that amount of ice!!!!
Did someone say CRACK?
talk all you want about climate change not affecting stuff like this, but our planet is supposed to be cooling down (based off of information about past climates found in isotopes) but instead we’re heating up because of the release of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere which is causing a greenhouse effect. our planet can have a greenhouse climate (basically NO snow or ice anywhere) without the release of carbon dioxide from emissions by us. there’s a reason carbon dioxide is in oil, the planet used living things (and rocks) to store it to regulate itself again, and we’re just releasing it back into the atmosphere without thinking about the consequences. people are dumb.
Im not sold. Starting in the next 1-2 years the sun will begin its Solar minimum cycle where we will experience next to no solar flares which bombard us with energy.
Have you ever heard of “The Little Ice Age.”
If not, go google search it.
if you read more closely the little ice age was in europe, not global
Climate change?, the world is just fine!…..the people—are fucked.
-George Carlin.
New York is 54,500 sq miles… do you mean an iceburg the size of New York City?
Simply facts –
I have more science education than a second grader. And don’t rely on wiki to gain that knowledge.
Atmospheric CO2 has almost doubled in the last 200 years.
CO2 levels have been there before, just never that fast.
Humans started using fossil fuels about 200 years ago.
Average global temperature is rising faster than ever before.
Temperatures will increase most dramatically at the poles. Up to 8 deg in the next 100 yrs.
Predictions made in the 70′s were way off, we are getting hotter alot faster.
Matias and Carlin hit the nail on the head. This is not the end of the world, just the extinction of humans.
Good thing the earth is 200 years old.
Of course it’s climate change. It happens all the time. That’s why we have the Great Lakes. It’s why you can find sea shells inland. Where was all the CO2 blame before this decade? The Global Warming people are the ones who need to wake up. Yes, the climate is changing. No, your petty existence isn’t to blame.