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| Al Gore is finally a Shining example |
Posted on 01/04/2014 2:33:13 PM PST by Third Person
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay.
The US Coast Guard has accepted this request and will make Polar Star available to assist.
The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel and other goods to the station. The Polar Star will go on to undertake its mission once the search and rescue incident is resolved.
RCC Australia identified the Polar Star as a vessel capable of assisting the beset vessels following MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice overnight on 24 December, 2013. RCC Australia has been in discussion with the US Coast Guard this week to ascertain if the Polar Star was able to assist once it reaches Antarctica.
The request for the Polar Star to assist the beset vessels was made by RCC Australia to the US Coast Guard on 3 January, 2014. The US Coast Guard officially accepted this request and released the Polar Star to RCC Australia for search and rescue tasking at 8.30am on 4 January, 2014.
The Polar Star will leave Sydney today after taking on supplies prior to its voyage to Antarctica.
It is anticipated it will take approximately seven (7) days for the Polar Star to reach Commonwealth Bay, dependent on weather and ice conditions.
At 122 metres, the Polar Star is one of the largest ships in the US Coast Guard fleet. It has a range of 16,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. The Polar Star has a crew of 140 people.
The Polar Star is able to continuously break ice up to 1.8 metres (6ft) while travelling at three (3) knots and can break ice over six (21ft) metres thick.
RCC Australia will be in regular contact with the relevant US Coast Guard RCC at Alameda, California, and the Captain of the Polar Star during its journey to Antarctica.
That is some awesome power...4" of ice will support a car on a lake/pond.
LOL!
What is the thickness of the ice that the Chinese icebreaker is stuck in?
I think those tree rings were found on a Hockey stick.
My understanding is about 3-4 meters. Unlike the Russian ship which is dolphined up on the ice, the Chinese ship may be locked in place by wind/water driven ice. Otherwise, it should be able to reverse course it's way out of the jam.
Especially politics and religion.
“Nothing in article about the purpose of the mission being to study global warming?”
The USCG vessel is not going there to study globull warming. it was a research vessel [a former Russian vessel, i believe] carrying climate change “scientists” to Antarctica to try to assess the impact of AGW on the levels of ice there that got trapped, and was unable to be freed by a Chinese icebreaker that went there earlier. i’m not sure, and wonder, if the Chinese icebreaker is still stuck in that region as well.
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| Al Gore is finally a Shining example |
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