Posted on 04/28/2009 6:51:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TROMSOE, Norway (Reuters) – An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday.
"The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become unstable and the first icebergs have been released," Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf.
Humbert told Reuters about 700 sq km (270.3 sq mile) of ice -- bigger than Singapore or Bahrain and almost the size of New York City -- has broken off the Wilkins this month and shattered into a mass of icebergs.
She said 370 sq kms of ice had cracked up in recent days from the Shelf, the latest of about 10 shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula to retreat in a trend linked by the U.N. Climate Panel to global warming.
The new icebergs added to 330 sq kms of ice that broke up earlier this month with the shattering of an ice bridge apparently pinning the Wilkins in place between Charcot island and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Nine other shelves -- ice floating on the sea and linked to the coast -- have receded or collapsed around the Antarctic peninsula in the past 50 years, often abruptly like the Larsen A in 1995 or the Larsen B in 2002.
The trend is widely blamed on climate change caused by heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels, according to David Vaughan, a British Antarctic Survey scientist who landed by plane on the Wilkins ice bridge with two Reuters reporters in January.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A handout satellite image taken April 27, 2009 of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica shows icebergs covering an area of 700 sq kms (270 sq miles) -- almost the size of New York City -- that have broken off this month after the collapse of an ancient ice bridge between Charcot Island and the shelf. REUTERS/DLR - German Aerospace Center/Handout (ANTARCTICA ENVIRONMENT)
Obama’s Fault!
> An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday.
> The trend is widely blamed on climate change caused by heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels,
Wow! They used BOTH “global warming’ and “Climate change’ in the same article.
DO we have an “on the spot” report from Al Gore ? Was he standing on the Ice Bridge when it collasped ?
Isn’t it basically the end of summer in Antarctica? How many hours of sunlight is that continent getting this time of year? Something like 18 hours?
We’re DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!
No, really! The water level in my youngest daughters fish tank just went up!
We’re DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!
Hurry get Obama’s AF1 up there for a photo op!
Isn’t it early fall there? Doesn’t ice melt when it’s warm?
It’s end of summer there.
My God Man! Summer must be stopped!
Get back to me when an Antarctica sized pack of ice breaks off of New York City.
Another bullshit Reuters article quoting duffus scientists.
The sun is playing havoc with our weather systems and they don’t notice it? Where did they get their degrees, Merchant Tires?
OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH....the HORROR! /s
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