[Geology2] NYC-sized iceberg being born on Antarctica

I love when that happens . . .

 
NYC-sized iceberg being born on Antarctica 
msnbc.com
4:43 PM EST November 2, 2011
 
Part of an 18-mile-long crack in the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf is
seen from a NASA jet on Oct. 26.
© NASA
 
Scientists on an aerial survey of Antarctica have come across an
18-mile-long break in an ice shelf - a sign that the sensitive area is
giving birth to an iceberg that will be larger than New York City.
 
"We are actually now witnessing how it happens," Michael Studinger,
project scientist with NASA's IceBridge survey, said in a statement
Wednesday. "It's part of a natural process but it's pretty exciting to
be here and actually observe it while it happens."
 
The scientists were aboard a NASA jet on Oct. 14, making measurements of
 
Pine Island Glacier and its ice shelf, when they came across the crack. 
 
Glaciers naturally give birth to icebergs, but scientists are concerned
that warming temperatures might be destabilizing those in Antarctica and
 
Greenland by eroding the ice shelves floating on water that hold them
back up against the mainland.
Without the ice shelves, those glaciers could flow much faster into the
ocean, raising sea levels. 
 
Scientists call Pine Island Glacier "the largest source of uncertainty
in global sea level rise projections," NASA noted in its statement. 
 
"It is likely that once the iceberg floats away, the leading edge of the
 
ice shelf will have receded farther than at any time since its location
was first recorded in the 1940s," NASA noted.
 
The team estimated the ice might finally break away from the shelf "in
the coming months" now that the Southern Hemisphere is entering its
summer.
Pine Island Glacier last calved a large iceberg in 2001.
 
The NASA team measured the rift at about 820 feet apart at its widest,
and about 260 feet wide along most of the crack. 
 
The deepest points were nearly 200 feet. 
The ice shelf around the rift is about 1,640 feet thick, the team
estimated.
 
Read more:
http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/articles.aspx?afid=1&aid=45138155 
 
 
 

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