Scientists - Collapse Of N. Ireland-Sized Wilkins Ice Shelf Imminent, Despite Antarctic Winter

[hatrack]

Scientists are warning that an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Northern Ireland is on the verge of disintegration, even though it is now the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter.

The European Space Agency says new satellite pictures show that the Wilkins shelf – the largest to be threatened so far – is "hanging by its last thread". Extending for approximately 5,600 square miles, it has been held in place by a thin ice bridge connecting it to an island, but this is now fracturing.

The shelf, which lies near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, had not been expected to collapse until the early 2020s. It provides further evidence that the planet is warming more quickly than predicted.

Scientists are stunned that it is continuing to melt in the depths of winter, and believe that warm water is welling up from the ocean to attack it from underneath. So far seven shelves on the peninsula have collapsed due to climate change.

EDIT

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-imminent-866504.html

[But....]

1. Beyond scary...

it's become kind of shunning how fast this is happening and how little we're doing to fix it.

[hogwyld]

2. I believe that even though we need to do something now

We've already passed the "point of no return". This planet is going to be one wild ride for a while until the human pandemic is either gone completely, or whacked down a lot. I shudder to think what the future holds.

[kestrel91316]

3. People have pooh-poohed me when I said that along with Greenland

and the Arctic ice cap, Antarctica is also going to melt away before our very eyes.

It's about that pesky logarithmic curve of accelerating changes.......

[Wilber_Stool]

4. Whenever I see a child

I want to tell them how sorry I am for their future.

[Mojorabbit]

5. Is this one

that will raise the ocean levels?

[hatrack]

7. No, it's an ice shelf so it's already floating. However, it's midwinter down there - interesting.

Also, it will speed up the movement of land-based glaciers which feed it.

[longship]

8. ...and that land-based ice behind it *WILL* increase levels..

But you are right. Float ice is already in the water.
This is serious.

[XemaSab]

6. .

[happyslug]

9. One of the reports on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, warned of ice expansion.

Remember when water freezes it expands, and that may be what happened here, water froze in gaps on the Ice Sheet, then froze. The Freezing ice expanded and put pressure on the Ice Sheet which caused it to crack. I do NOT know if that happened here, but given it is Winter it is possible.

The Worse part all this does is make the Ice Sheet Weaker, this increasing the chance of a Break up this March (i.e. when the Antarctic Summer ends).

[tom_paine]

10. No, it can't be "faster than expected".

No, it can't be that, can it?

:sarcasm: