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Giant iceberg splits from Antarctica
A giant iceberg, the size of Luxembourg, has broken free from Antarctica and according to scientists could potentially play havoc with weather patterns across the globe for years to come. The massive chunk of ice, more than 985 square-miles in size, broke free from the Mertz Glacier Tongue along the eastern coast of Antarctica on February 12 or 13, and moved out into a region of the Southern Ocean that is vital to the production of cold, salty water that helps circulate important ocean currents.The new iceberg was created when an older one, labeled as B9B amongst researchers, slammed into an ice shelf, dislodging it from the continent. B9B had broken away back in 1987, and drifted around the region, but had mostly sat dormant until recently. Now, the two pieces of ice have merged to form this one giant berg which could have long lasting implications to global climate.
The newly formed iceberg, which is over 48-miles in length, has already drifted out into a part of the ocean known as a polynya. Polynyas are an area of the Southern Ocean where dense, extremely cold and salty water is produced. That "bottom water", as it is known, sinks deep into the sea and creates the circulation that moves the various ocean currents around the globe. If the iceberg stays where it is at right now, it could cause a change in those circulations, having an effect on ocean currents worldwide, which will also change jet stream patterns and the movement of weather.
Best case scenario, the iceberg will either move back into the Antarctic coast or drift north into warmer waters, where it won't cause any problems, but scientists say that isn't likely. The good news is that it will probably be decades before the effects of the iceberg will be known, and I'm sure by then global warming will have kicked in, and we'll be happy for the cooling effect this might bring.
Filed under: Antarctica, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Al Gore Mar 1st 2010 8:53AM
It's like saying the sun rose this morning but will it rise again the next day.
The EnvironMENTAL Climate Change movement was a classic mind/body "denial of death" by a human monkey who had not come to terms with consciousness. “How can this mind that is only mine, my very own world with an imagination that can take me anywhere in my mind possibly be attached to a mortal pile of blood and bones?”
The Denial of Death as Ernest Becker said is our continual war in life and by elevating ourselves to the status of God-like beings who have the God-like powers to destroy planets was no different from any other ancient practice or religion. This Greenzi religion demanded unquestioned obedience to the scientists and faith in the virtue of no evidence. These effects of global warming hid away deep in the oceans, far away at the poles, deep in jungles and atop far off mountains read like scripture and their bible was this sewer of untreated information called the internet. It and the Greenzis for a while at least, made it an issue of "who" is saying what, not "what" is being said.
If Suzuki and his flock of sick followers had gotten away with this mass insanity of CO2 dooming, I'm positive that we would be dragged down to a new dark age of fear and ignorance.
I knew Climate Warming Global Change was nothing but an insignificant cult when there were thousands of more scientists than protestors. How foolish could one look?
Thermogeden is over obviously so let's hope this modern day witch burning was a lesson to future civilized societies.
We're invincible Feb 27th 2010 11:57AM
I'm always shocked to read posts from seemingly intelligent people who lack objectivity and honesty. I've always believed that education and intelligence are power in this world; they always have been. And it shocks me to read or hear ignorant, prejudiced, unreasonable assertions that come more from the heart than the brain. I suspect that in most cases these unfortunate individuals were reared with these personal biases at a young age and have retained and nurtured those biases through one-sided internet searches and biased readings. Don't you people realize that a bias of any kind isn't something to be proud of? It's a barrier keeping you from the honest pursuit of the truth and there's nothing more liberating than that.
The very notion that the pursuit of truth and knowledge through the use of scientific hypothesis, testing and peer group review is anything even remotely akin to a witch hunt is preposterous and irrational. In fact, the "witches" of the past were probably the scientists of the past, outnumbered by the average and stupid and too proud to keep their intelligent beliefs to themselves. These people were killed for thinking outside the box and there's nothing even remotely close to this happening on either side of the green/religious or left/right divide.
We've moved past that in most of the G8 nations. Drop the bias and consider the possibility that billions of human beings collectively are acting like a virus/ant farm to a planet that was in balance before we came along, over procreated and were forced to develop scientific measures to overcome mass disease, drought, famine and a warming climate. You laugh at science in one sentence and yet you'll turn to it this summer to air condition your home. Quit being hypocrites, people. The scientific community has extended lives, cured diseases, heated homes, cooled homes, built vehicles, put human beings on the moon. Trust that the best and brightest amongst us have all of our best interests at heart and quit suspecting the worst and looking for conspiracy theories. You're wasting your lives frustrated, fearful and ill informed. It's never to late to find the truth.
Meme Mine Mar 2nd 2010 11:19AM
Call us deniers and ignorant all you like but you global warmers should stop and ask how you are going to regain the voter support you have lost, the voting support the was needed to support your "pursuit of truth" as you Greenzis liked to call it.
WE THE VOTERS dictate social science policy, not science. We don't care how much money you blow on pursuing "truth" but we the voters would have to go to the poles starving from a climate crisis to be willing to approve the taxes and sacrifice of climate change policy.
It's over and if you think Bush was bad for the neocons, this 24 years of fear mongering with YOUR CO2WMD scam will sting the left for generations.
Doubt, question and challenge authority like good liberals, not like obedient Greenzis.