[Paul Pierett]

It might be a contradiction or the global cooling evidence has them, the scientists and MSNBC dumbfounded. Not sure. Too many scientists are tied to the IPCC.

MSNBC tends to be in the Gore Camp. I wonder if they noticed it?

I would recommend MSNBC bring in a Glacier Expert before they throw in a possible prejudice.

[Jonty30]

I really hate it when journalists don’t answer basic questions.

They say something is big, but they don’t say how big it is.
They say it’s tall, but they don’t quantify as to how tall it is.

Is it too much to answer the questions they pose?

[KoRn]

FOUND: 115,830 square miles of polar ice

LOL!

[JaguarXKE]

"However, the calving iceberg itself is the result of a cyclical process, not climate change, scientists say. -- damn it!!"

Fixed.

[mnehring]

Didn’t they have another one of these a few years ago the size of Florida they claimed was caused by Gorebull warming, then it grew back the next year?

[WesternPacific]

... are almost undoubtedly caused by climate change and warming oceans in the region.

Yep, it could be almost, or not.

[70times7]

OH MY GOSH!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! Just as the article says, this is ALMOST CERTAINLY the result of global warming! /s

Unless the process of a glacier moving slowly but continuously into the ocean will inevitably break off at some point. Let's be realistic; if it didn't it would one day encircle the globe. What a pack of morons.

[bunkerhill7]

A massive crack in a huge sheet of Antarctic ice was caused by a guy stealing 5 tonnes of ice from a Chilean glacier to sell to restaurants as ice cubes.

[Moonman62]

The recent discovery that the glacier has markedly sped up over the last decade has provoked a flurry of research interest in Pine Island Glacier and its ice shelf, whose sudden changes are almost undoubtedly caused by climate change and warming oceans in the region.

The planet has a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.

[married21]

I think it’s Scrat’s fault. (Ice Age movies)

[Graewoulf]

Well, lemme see now - - - . The ice is solid and the Ocean is liquid. Think, think, think! Oh yeah, both are different States of Matter of H2O! Yeah, and the liquid is warmer than the solid, and the solid is less dense than the liquid. Therefore, the solid floats on the liquid - - - . Lost my train of thought.

BTW, what was the problem in the first place?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Any glacier that meets the ocean is going to calve regularly. This isn’t evidence of global warming.

[smokingfrog]

---

The location of the crack is near where past rifts have appeared in the ice shelf, according to Bindschadler. He estimated that a new, rather large iceberg will probably form in the coming months, if not weeks.

“I hope that our field team will have enough time to get onto the ice shelf and set up GPS receivers before the calving event,” Bindschadler said. “We’d like to measure if the ice shelf notices the loss.”

Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the Boulder, Colo.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, agreed that it’s likely that the crack is part of a natural cycle.

“These are cyclical, occurring every few years, very similar in size and even shape,” said Scambos via e-mail. “As a cyclical process, they are not part of the real climate-change/ice-shelf disintegration story.”

In 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated in spectacular fashion, losing about 3,250 square kilometers of ice in a single season. More recently, the Wilkins Ice Shelf on the western side of the peninsula has started to collapse. Scientists believe both events are linked to climate change, though some researchers have suggested that wave action from distant storms could have helped break up the Wilkins Ice Shelf.

“If something different happened this time; for example, the pace of calvings changed, or this one was farther upstream from the past ones, then it might signal some major change in the Pine Island system,” said Scambos, adding that the area is changing in other ways, but the rate of calving has been steady over the last few decades.

A Crack in the Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf

[ThunderSleeps]

The recent discovery that the glacier has markedly sped up over the last decade has provoked a flurry of research interest in Pine Island Glacier and its ice shelf, whose sudden changes are almost undoubtedly caused by climate change and warming oceans in the region.

Wow, so glad he (?) qualified that with "...almost undoubtedly..." which, if I can go off on tangent here for a moment... WTF does that mean? Undoubtedly means without a doubt. Qualifying it with almost puts it back into what, the realm of well, maybe, possibly, could-be... But this {expletive} is no-doubt counting on people to read over that quickly and just remember that big word, undoubtedly. Well, it isn't, there is a lot of doubt, even from the very statements he's making.

Ok, the glacier "...has markedly sped up..." Hmm, seems to me that means more ice coming down, increased flow. Gee, to do that you'd need more snow & ice at the source... Doesn't sound like a warming trend but rather a cooling trend.

[eclecticEel]

Here's a shot of the crack. One thing that's patently obvious is that the edge of the glacier on the left hand side of the image was also at one time a crack, much like this new one that's now opening up. Of course, that probably happened before the era of satellite imagery - so I guess it doesn't count.

[Brad’s Gramma]

PLEASE DONATE

SO THIS SHIVERING PATHETIC SNIVELING
SHADOW OF A DOG CAN GET OUT OF OUR SIGHT!

PLEASE DONATE

SO THIS SHIVERING PATHETIC SNIVELING
SHADOW OF A DOG CAN GET OUT OF OUR SIGHT!

[WSGilcrest]

"The ice shelf is the floating end of the Pine Island Glacier, a slow-moving river of ice in West Antarctica that moves ice from the interior of the continent out to sea. "

Can someone please explain to me where West Antarctica starts?

[Political Junkie Too]

are almost undoubtedly caused by climate change and warming oceans in the region.

How come mountainous volcanos are allowed to erupt, the earth is allowed to quake, but ice is not allowed to crack?

-PJ

[Aussiebabe]

Ice extent has been growing in the Antarctica since satellite images started to be kept in 1979, and as of today's date, is higher than average for this time of year since 1979.

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/s_plot_hires.png

[bikerman]

OMG! we are all DOOMED I tell you, DOOMED.

[ejonesie22]

Wow, ice breaking off a glacier and floating off to sea...

Better warn the Titanic before it becomes another victim of Global Warming...