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West Antarctic Ice Shelf Tearing

West Antarctic Ice Shelves Tearing Apart at the Seams

...the floating ice shelves of a critical portion of West Antarctica are steadily losing their grip on adjacent bay walls, potentially amplifying an already accelerating loss of ice to the sea.

...their margins, where they grip onto rocky bay walls or slower ice masses, are fracturing and retreating inland. As that grip continues to loosen, these already-thinning ice shelves will be even less able to hold back grounded ice upstream,...

The shear margins that bound these ice shelves laterally are now heavily rifted, resembling a cracked mirror in satellite imagery until the detached icebergs finally drift out to the open sea. The calving front then retreats along these disintegrating margins. The pattern of marginal rifting and retreat is hypothesized to be a symptom, rather than a trigger, of the recent glacier acceleration in this region, but this pattern could generate additional acceleration. [emphasis mine]

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Simeone on March 27, 2012 at 9:11pm

It amazes me that so many religious people don't care that their killing the Earth they believe god created for them.

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on March 28, 2012 at 12:28am

Yes! I was thinking the same thing Jonathan.

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on March 30, 2012 at 12:11am

Sr. Senator from Oklahoma, Jim Inhofe, is the ranking member of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works said, said,

"Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that 'as long as the earth remains there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.' My point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous."

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on April 28, 2012 at 12:24pm

Perhaps if Inhofe had a little less hubris and arrogance, he would see evidence that exists abundantly.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on April 6, 2012 at 7:38pm

The new report on the state of Polar Regions puts this one event into context.

Among the major findings is that global warming is changing the face of Antarctica and the Arctic faster than expected.

...we have a new benchmark. Seven of 12 Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves are either gone or now in severe decline," she adds. "This type of information makes the report all the more important because the changes we expect to see in the next few decades are going to be incredible."

New Report On the State of Polar Regions

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on April 6, 2012 at 11:35pm

"Two social advances to emerge from the recent IPY are a remarkable increase in the number of women and minorities in leadership roles in science compared to 50 years ago along with the "massive" educational effort and increased interest in and public awareness of issues facing polar regions, she adds."

This is not a gender or race issue, it is about a healthy planet with healthy inhabitants.

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on April 26, 2012 at 4:55pm

Thanks for the link to the new report. You are on top of things Ruth!

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on April 26, 2012 at 4:16pm

NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) reveals that most Antarctic melting doesn't depend on warm air. The link has a nice computer animation showing currents and ice shelf thickness from space.

Warm Ocean Currents Cause Majority of Ice Loss from Antarctica

"We can lose an awful lot of ice to the sea without ever having summers warm enough to make the snow on top of the glaciers melt," said the study's lead author Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, United Kingdom. "The oceans can do all the work from below."

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on April 26, 2012 at 4:57pm

I just watched the video. They include a link to download it as well.

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Simeone on April 26, 2012 at 5:21pm

That makes perfect sense to me. But then how do we cool ocean water? It seems that reducing heat overall would play a role.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on April 26, 2012 at 6:25pm

That's the catch. Most of the excess heat from Climate Change has been going into the ocean.

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Simeone on April 28, 2012 at 3:31pm

I think you need to add smarter to the list as well. It's amazing to think that someone like him is a senator.