From the article:
“We believe the Wilkins has been in place for at least a few hundred years, but warm air and exposure to ocean waves are causing it to break up,” Scambos said.
So, did we have more global warming a few hundred years ago, AFTER which the Wilkins formed?
ScienceDaily (May 31, 2004) — ARLINGTON, Va. -- Scientists working in the stormy and inhospitable waters off the Antarctic Peninsula have found what they believe is an active and previously unknown volcano on the sea bottom.
Highly sensitive temperature probes moving continuously across the bottom of the volcano revealed signs of geothermal heating of seawater.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040527235943.htm
“By March 8, the ice shelf had lost just over 220 square miles (570 square kilometers) of ice, and the disintegrated ice had spread over 540 square miles (1,400 square kilometers).
The region where the Wilkins Ice Shelf lies has experienced unprecedented warming in the past 50 years, with several ice shelves retreating in the past 30 years. Six of these ice shelves have collapsed completely: Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and the Jones Ice Shelf.”
And yet we continue to live. The cities haven’t flooded, the crops haven’t failed. So what’s the big deal?
Gravity
Is this not an example of calving, meaning the glacier is getting bigger?
Where’s Frederic Tudor when you need him?
How can they call themselves scientists, and at the same time be shocked that changes occur to ice shelves on Planet Earth? This world is constantly in flux, undergoing change.
This is report from a BBC ice researcher from a year ago around this time:
Ice Station Ronne
Posted on 09/03/07 by Mark Brandon
In my last blog entry I said that I had witnessed dawn over the sea ice.
Of course what I never said was what sea ice actually is……
When the sea surface gets to about -1.8°C it starts to freeze and become solid. (I can’t be any more accurate about the temperature because the more salt in the water, the colder it has to be to freeze). This frozen sea water is called sea ice and it isn’t solid like the ice you put in your drinks from the freezer, but more like a seawater soaked sponge (but not so soggy). Most of the salt is squeezed out of the ice as it forms, but if you put sea ice in your gin or lemonade, then prepare to be very disappointed. New sea ice is probably about 20% as salty as the sea and would make everything taste pretty bad.
Sea ice has been big climate news because we know in the Arctic there is less ice than 50 years ago , and it is also much thinner.In short, in the Arctic the sea ice is on the way out .
In contrast, in the Antarctic we know so little, we cannot really say much. We can measure the area of sea ice (we call this the extent) very easily using satellites. (At this time of year the extent of ice is at a minimum, but it is autumn, -18°C outside and so the extent will increase rapidly). When you look at the sea ice extent data for the Antarctic, the answer we get isn’t clear. In some areas the ice is increasing in extent and in some areas it is decreasing. Overall there is not a significant change (Although in the place I am the sea ice has been retreating). When it comes to the thickness we just don’t have enough measurements to be able to say whether it is changing at all.
So why can we be so certain about the Arctic but know so little about the Antarctic?
Here is a clue .
As part of my research trip we have a scientist on board researching the sea ice. What that means is we have to get off the ship to drill through the ice and collect samples of both the snow and sea ice. This sort of thing is usually done during the day, but conditions have been so good for this kind of work, that Ted Maksym (from the British Antarctic Survey ) took the opportunity to do an ice station at dusk, and as I work nights (we run a 24 hour operation to make the most of our time) I found myself out on the ice.
the calving of ice bergs and segments of continental ice shelves, into nearby waters, is a natural, slow and constant, never ending process, with peaks and valleys in the rate of events at any given time
how and why?
precipitation continually deposits new snow onto existing expanses of ice
over time, under the perpetual continuation of that precipitation, compression compacts the whole into ice-bergs and continental ice packs, with their polar location keeping the whole frozen - on land
the pressure from the compression becomes more and more immense over time, changing the viscosity of the bottom-most layers to a form somewhere between frozen and liquid
the increasing weight of the mass, gravity, the topography of the land and the viscosity of the lower layers results in the bottom seeking to “slide”, where ever gravity directs and topography permits
as with all land-bound water moved by gravity and topography, that eventually leads to the ocean
so, what is the statistical fact, that demonstrates the natural nature of the events reported? - the size and depth of the ice pack lying inland over the whole continent of Antarctica has increased immensely - the whole has increased immensely in size and depth, and so, naturally, has the calving at the warmer-water perimeter at the ocean
The ignorant are often shocked.
Did anyone check up on the obvious error in this “scientific” article.
It claims the ice shelf, 25 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, is “ten times” the size of Manhattan. Quick math shows the ice shelf is about 37.5 square miles. According to the government, Manhattan in 31 square miles including adjacent waters, 22.5 miles if only the land is considered. The ice shelf is thus less than twice as large as Manhattan, NOT “ten times” as large.
If they can’t get such basic facts even remotely correct, why trust anything they Claim?
If the name fits, wear it.
FMCDH(BITS)
Peak warming and peak plant species migration here in my yard in Fairbanks was in 1995.
So what they are saying is that an ice sheet that formed after the medieval warming has now started breaking off. And this is different from how ice sheets have formed and then broken off for the past million years because ... ?
In related news, parts of the Midwestern United States have experienced unprecedented warming in the past 2 days, with several snow drifts retreating in the past day. "We believe this snow has been in place for a few days, but warm air is causing it to melt."
There are no cracks visible. It just looks like a frozen wasteland. I've zoomed in with the higher resolution and there is nothing visible.
You can zoom into 250M resolution here yourself if you want to investigate at higher resolution.
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2008084/crefl2_143.A2008084210501-2008084211000.250m.jpg
This article has satellite photos
Giant Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080325-antarctica-photo.html