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 ...
Penguins (C) drift on an ice floe beneath a cathedral iceberg in the Southern Ocean in the Australian Antarctic Territory in 2006. 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. (AFP/AAD-HO/File/Chris Wilson)
Luxembourg is tiny.
Artist Vincent J.F. Huang's installation "Suicide Penguins", a comment on global warming, hangs below the Millennium Bridge in front of the Swiss RE building (known as the Gherkin) in London February 13, 2010. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (BRITAIN - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT)
Artist Vincent J.F. Huang's installation artwork "Suicide Penguins", a comment on global warming using glass penguins and a stuffed toy polar bear, hangs below the Millennium Bridge in London February 13, 2010. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (BRITAIN - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT IMAGES OF THE DAY)
The world is DOOMED!
I’m just petrified!
LOL!!!
When will they stop this idiotic gloBULL warming **it?
Nonsense.
I thought I was the one disrupting ocean current by using gasoline in my car. I cannot believe I have been replaced with a hunk of ice.
Another Alarmists Headline....???
LOL
It’s Ze FRench. ;-)
This is not true unless the iceberg were driving an SUV and exhaling CO2. No way can nature cause anything bad. The world was perfect until someone put humans here. Maybe it was Al Gore’s mom.
Iceberg broke off, probably due to ocean waves, no global warming junk science involved ... But you know they will try, don’t you.
So in other words, its doing what icebergs do.
And if you believe that, I’ve got some global warming to sell you.
How are the penguins gonna get home???
I want to know what Obama is going to do to confront the threat posed by this killer iceberg.
How are the penguins gonna get home???
This is serious...will Obama send a rescue vehicle...??
Also note that total ice has continued to grow (not decrease) since records began:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png
The UN will probably fund a penguin relocation program.
Did someone lie to us?
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