Posted on 02/25/2010 4:01:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) – An iceberg the size of Luxembourg knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe, researchers said Thursday.
While the impact would not be felt for decades or longer, a slowdown in the production of colder, dense water could result in less temperate winters in the north Atlantic, they said.
The 2550 square-kilometre (985 square-mile) block broke off on February 12 or 13 from the Mertz Glacier Tongue, a 160-kilometer spit of floating ice protruding into the Southern Ocean from East Antarctica due south of Melbourne, researchers said.
Some 400 metres (1300 feet) thick, the iceberg could fill Sydney Harbour more than 100 times over.
It could also disturb the area's exceptionally rich biodiversity, including a major colony of emperor penguins near Dumont d'Urville, site of a French scientific station, according to the scientists.
"The ice tongue was almost broken already. It was hanging like a loose tooth," said Benoit Legresy, a French glaciologist who has been monitoring the Metz Glacier via satellite images and on the ground for a decade in cooperation with Australian scientists.
The billion-tonne mass was dislodged by another, older iceberg, known as B9B, which split off in 1987.
Jammed against the Antarctic continent for more than 20 years, B9B smashed into the Metz tongue like a slow-motion battering ram after it began to drift.
Both natural cycles and manmade climate change contribute to the collapse ice shelves and glaciers.
Tide and ocean currents constantly beat against exposed areas, while longer summers and rising temperatures also take a toll.
"Obviously when there is warmer water, these ice tongues will become more fragile," said Legresy, who works at the Laboratory for Geophysics and Oceanographic Space Research in Toulouse, southern France.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Roughly 50 miles long and 20 miles wide, a mere speck in the ocean.
pppppping.
I don’t konw,...don’t remember a thread...but there is such a flood,..I may have forgotten.
Hope the snow level works out for you,...whichever is your preference.
Ah. It was the start of this tread from a few days ago. I thought I saw similar reference earlier in the week.
An iceberg the size of Luxembourg knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month...Why couldn't it have been the size of Iceland, at least that would have been funny. ;') Thanks Ernest.
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I just have a feeling that it will break up and melt.
Ice tends to do that when you expose it to warmer water. You don’t need much of a “study” to figure that one out.
An iceberg the size they are talking about in relation to the ocean, would be like throwing an ice cube from your freezer into a swimming pool. I have a very difficult time believing it will make a bit of difference.
I’m sure the people that did this “study” were indeed well paid/rewarded though.....
Oh, Dear God, I knew it was true!
:’)
I could think of more appropriate effigies.
I am sure this is nonsense, but look at the reason why they are saying it.
They are saying that there will be colder winters in Europe, because of an iceberg disrupting currents in the south of the world (????) ... not to a failure of global warming.
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