Huge iceberg breaks off Antarctica

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/02/100226_iceberg_wt_sl.shtml

by yread • 16 years ago

75 67 16 years ago

bbc.co.uk

andreyf2• 16 years ago

More info here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1241059...

In summary, B9B, a 97-kilometer long iceberg, crashed into the Mertz Glacier Tongue in the Australian Antarctic Territory on Feb. 20, 2010. The collision created a new 78-kilometer long iceberg. Those two are now drifting around, chilling out. Complicated ocean currents will most likely be affected, possibly depriving huge parts of the ocean of oxygen, interrupting millions of biological feedback systems we know nothing about, shifting them to newfound equilibria, making this little ecosystem of ours a lot more livable for obscure branches of bugs, and a lot less livable for us.

tl;dr: We're all going to die.

scotty792• 16 years ago

Couldn't you just pin it in place with hundred steel ropes or something?

pmjordan• 16 years ago

"The icebergs, weighing 860 billion tons and 700 billion tons respectively, are located in water over the Antarctic Continental Shelf, Young said."

I think you'd need more than a hundred steel ropes to hold 860 billion tons of ice in place.

andreyf2• 16 years ago

That sounds like one of those "it's harder in practice" type of things - both from a political (who is going to fund it?) and engineering standpoint.

idlewords• 16 years ago

Steel only has five hundred times the tensile strength of ice.

gjm11• 16 years ago

But, of course, Phil Jones wrote some rude emails and used the words "trick" and "hide", therefore global warming isn't real and poses no threat even if it is. So, nothing to worry about.

antidaily• 16 years ago

You don't understand… I've seen it. I've seen it happening. The ocean is dying, the plankton is dying… It's people! Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Soon, they'll be breeding us like cattle—for food! You gotta tell 'em! Listen to me, Hatcher! You gotta tell 'em—SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!

jmaygarden2• 16 years ago

What does this have to do with global warming? The new iceberg was dislodged by a collision. Nothing in the article indicates temperature as a factor.

fauigerzigerk5• 16 years ago

If global warming is a danger Mr. Jones has made it a little more dangerous with his illegal actions that have discredited climate research.

But anyway, I get the feeling that we're suffering a collective bout of climate hypochondria this century. Haven't icebergs been colliding and breaking apart forever?

SamAtt• 16 years ago

The problem with the Global Warming debate is the fact that there's so much ignorance on BOTH sides.

For example, One Iceberg in itself doesn't prove anything because the temperature in one isolated area can vary regardless of the overall global temperature. So you insinuating this is proof of AGW is the equivalent of a Conservative saying Global Warming doesn't exist because it's been the coldest winter on record in the north east.

The only thing that can prove or disprove the hypothesis of AGW conclusively is good research and that's why Phil Jones' behavior was so damaging.

orblivion2• 16 years ago

Remember, the majority of the debate is about the cause of increase in temperatures, not the existence.

banana• 16 years ago

I say, nuke that iceberg! It will melt like a marshmallow :-)

raganwald• 16 years ago

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use nuclear bombs." Now they have two problems.

theycallmemorty• 16 years ago

I'll admit that the first thought I had was "Why not drop some bombs on it?"

Maybe not nukes, but it doesn't seem like such a terrible idea if the giant sheet of ice is going to be so disruptive.

fleitz• 16 years ago

s/nuclear bombs/a regex/

johnohara• 16 years ago

Stake a claim and sell it.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915637,00.h...

MikeMacMan• 16 years ago

Maybe Monty Brewster can hitch a motor to it and float it up to the Middle East, where he'll make millions off the ice cubes!

evgen• 16 years ago

Harry Broderick and his team already did this one, I know because I saw it on TV :)

[OK, that one will date several of us... but there was once a time when sci-fi on TV was so rare we would watch just about anything...]

t3rcio• 16 years ago

It appears here too: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/26/antarctica.... This iceberg has a fresh water enough to supply a third world's population for one year.

Apreche• 16 years ago

It's OK, we found the remains. It landed on New York.

protomyth2• 16 years ago

"It has been nuzzling and shifting alongside the Mertz for about 18 years before this month's dislodging" - so we kinda should have seen this coming.

sliverstorm3• 16 years ago

I don't quite understand why it's such a bad thing to worry about, suspect, and try to fight climate change, even if it doesn't exist.

It's like Pascal's Wager, imho.

jacoblyles2• 16 years ago

Because throwing a trillion dollars worth of resources down a black hole is stupid in a world with limited resources and billions of poor people.

Also worth noting: despite the writings of Pascal, you won't find many atheists in church. Most of them decide the cost is not worth the (odds-adjusted) expected benefits.

orblivion2• 16 years ago

What keeps me out of church is the fact that the Bible could just as easily have been written by Satan, and that following Jesus would condemn me to hell.

Now, granted, global warming is more likely, to me, than hell, but not nearly as hot, so it's a lot more worth considering the costs involved :)

sliverstorm3• 16 years ago

Funny, I always thought the best ways to fight climate change, if it exists, were to use less and make what is left more efficient. That is why I don't see it as a bad thing- in a world with limited resources and billions of poor people, increased efficiency and decreased consumption seems like a good thing.

heliodorj• 16 years ago

this is NOT worthy of the front page. this has happened before and it will happen again. nothing interesting to see here. moving on...

metamemetics• 16 years ago

The Story also links to this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8539198.stm

"I think on larger scales, it's not likely to have a very major impact on the global climate" -British Antartic Survey.

Huge iceberg breaks off Antarctica

Related Stories