Larsen C Ice Shelf Breakoff Coming: Crack Grew 14 Miles Jan-Aug; 10-12% Of Shelf Will Go

[hatrack]

A large rift is widening across an increasingly fragile Antarctic ice shelf, scientists found. The crack is spreading across the Larsen C Ice Shelf at an increased rate, threatening to carve out an iceberg the size of Delaware while destabilizing a larger area of ice roughly the size of Scotland.

When this iceberg calving event happens — no one knows exactly when it will occur, except that it's getting closer — it will be the largest calving event in Antarctica since 2000, the third-biggest ever recorded and the largest from this particular ice shelf, scientists say.

About 10 to 12 percent of the Larsen C Ice Shelf is expected to break off during such an event, leaving the larger ice shelf even more vulnerable to melting from increasing air and ocean temperatures.

The iceberg and ice shelf melting would not, however, increase sea levels, since the ice is already resting in the ocean, like an ice cube in a glass. However, while the Larsen C Ice Shelf may not be a sea level rise concern, rising temperatures and changes in land and sea ice across the Antarctic Peninsula are affecting native wildlife and may help disrupt regional — and possibly even global — ocean circulation.

EDIT

http://mashable.com/2016/08/22/crack-larsen-c-ice-shelf-antarctica/#8QpbWMyF88qM

[2naSalit]

1. *sigh*

As I look out my window on a smoke filled valley that has been so for three weeks due to regional wild fires and a river that is closed for 183 miles plus all tributaries due to a major fish die-off this past week. The Osprey are in trouble as are the eagles and all fishing birds right outside a major national park.

Here we go, ready or not.