European Space Agency - Collapse Of Wilkins Sheet Ice Bridge "Appears Imminent"

[hatrack]

3 April 2009
The Wilkins Ice Shelf is at risk of partly breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula as the ice bridge that connects it to Charcot and Latady Islands looks set to collapse. The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its centre axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away.

The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images acquired on 2 April by ESA’s Envisat satellite confirm that the rifts are quickly expanding along the ice bridge. Dr Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics, Münster University, and Dr Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing, University of Bonn, witnessed the recent development during their daily monitoring activities of the ice sheet using data from Envisat and the German Aerospace Center’s TerraSAR-X satellite.

EDIT

Many changes occurred to the ice shelf in 2008, as witnessed by Envisat. In late February, 425 sq km of ice calved away, narrowing the ice bridge down to a 6-km strip. At the end of May a 160-sq-km chunk of ice broke away and reduced the ice bridge to just 2.7 km, leaving it only 900 m wide at its narrowest location.

"In the past months, we have observed the ice bridge deforming and its narrowest location acting as a kind of hinge," Humbert said. "During the last year the ice shelf has lost about 1800 sq km or about 14% of its size. The break-up events in February and May 2008 happened in just hours, leaving the remaining part of the ice bridge in a fragile situation," Humbert explained. "Rift developments during October and November resulted presumably from the loss of 1220 sq km along the northern ice front during June and July 2008."



http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMD07EH1TF_Protecting_0.html

[maxsolomon]

1. meh, that's on the other side of the planet from us.

it can't possibly affect anywhere where REAL americans live. USA = #1! drill baby drill!

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Hmph...

...speak for yourself...
:(

[phantom power]

6. Yeah, how smug are you now NZ?

[Dead_Parrot]

8. ...

x(

[XemaSab]

16. You hush

The man promised us homemade hard cider when we got there.

You want to spend the apocalypse drinking Coors? x(

[phantom power]

17. Oh god, I relent.

Low blow, playing the Coors card.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Still in the same bathtub, though. nt

[maxsolomon]

11. man! never forget the

:sarcasm:

[phantom power]

12. The secret is to include a picture of a pony.

Tinkerbell also works.

[Dead_Parrot]

15. We could never forget sarcasm. It's all we have left.

well, sarcasm and cockroaches.



Meh.

[ensho]

2. that was quick - the ice is melting faster and faster

scientists time estimates turn out to be quicker then expected.

[XemaSab]

3. .

[phantom power]

4. I'm sure nothing unexpected will happen as a result of *that*

[Dead_Parrot]

10. Absolutely.

Hey look! Cute puppy!

[Gregorian]

7. As the world increases petroleum emissions, all we can do is watch.

The only way to reverse the situation is to stop doing what we've been doing.

And that isn't going to happen.

There's almost no point in even paying attention to it, since we aren't going to change. And by change I don't mean screwing a compact fluorescent bulb in, or buying a Prius. Those are only minute incremental changes.

Bravo world. Your growth killed you. Homo Sapiens, the specie that didn't know when to stop. The specie that overpowered nature.

Now let me put my laptop back on, hop on my backhoe and continue with the destruction. Just so you know I'm preaching to myself as well as you.

[pscot]

13. My compact flourescents all died

much quicker than I expected. They came with extravagant promises, they cost a lot and they didn't work. I expect there's a metaphor in there somewhere, or maybe a caution.

[phantom power]

14. I've had some similar experience.

Although some of my CFLs seem to have lasted as advertised, others definitely have not. Hopefully they become more consistent. Better regs?

[pscot]

18. Quality control has been lousy

Production ramped up too qhickly. And they don't handle heat build-up very well, therefore enclosed fixtures are contra-indicated. I read recently that the manufacturers are aware they've fucked up, and are trying to improve durability.

[phantom power]

19. Hopefully the LED bulb manufacturers will learn from that mistake.

I'm willing to consider paying $50 for a lightbulb, but only if I'm very damned sure it will last as long as advertised and recoup my investment.