Comments on: Huge Antarctic Ice Shelf Headed for Collapse

By: Gary Howland

Gary Howland — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:41:28 +0000

It’s interesting to look at what the Aussies say:

http://www.news.com.au/antarctic-ice-is-growing-not-melting-away/story-0-1225700043191

They lay claim to part of eastern Antarctica, and should have a good idea of what’s happening.

By: Jake Richardson

Jake Richardson — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:19:42 +0000

The EPA site has some relevant info on the topic:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/futureslc.html

Higher temperatures are expected to raise sea level by:

expanding ocean water,
melting mountain glaciers and small ice caps,
causing portions of the coastal section of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to melt or slide into the ocean.

By: Jake Richardson

Jake Richardson — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:13:26 +0000

Thanks for the comments, the ice bridge is reportedly breaking up or is broken.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7984054.stm

By: Emmie

Emmie — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:31:30 +0000

Hmmm, Had a look at my old atlas from the 70′s and antarctica had less ice then, than it does now. So I did a little research and it seems the glaciers and ice shelves have been increasing eratically since a huge melting back in the 1940′s. It seems ‘calving’, where vast areas of ice fall away usually precedes massive surges in glaciers and ice shelves.

Dynamics of Antarctic Glaciers in the 20th century can be found at http://www.cig.ensmp.fr/~iahs/redbooks/a208/iahs_208_0209.pdf and is an eight page PDF file which gives much more information.

The gentleman who wrote the above report is Russian – and, after doing their own research, the Russians don’t seem too bothered about climate change!! I wonder why?

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:00:02 +0000

The glass analogy above is a useful one, but inaccurate. From what I understand the main problem with sea levels is not that these ice shelfs are breaking up–it’s that they hold land ice in place. When the ice shelfs are gone, the land ice falls into the water causing sea level to rise.

So to look at the glass of ice water analogy again, it’s as if the ice cubes are slowly melted overnight–and this causes someone to throw another handful of ice cubes on the top–and the glass overflows.

By: Antarktis bröckelt weiter « 11k2

Antarktis bröckelt weiter « 11k2 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:36:34 +0000

[...] (via ecoworldly) [...]

By: Ish

Ish — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:55:53 +0000

OK, I’m not going to comment on other’s comments… it hurts to read them. However…

Yes, The melting of the ARCTIC ice won’t affect the sea levels, as that ice sheet is already floating within the ocean, and won’t displace volumes of water.

However, most of the ice in the ANTARCTIC sits ontop of a giant continental rock shelf ABOVE THE WATER LINE. So if that falls into the ocean, it’s like filling up the glass of water first, THEN putting the ice in, which therefore = overflow. Hence, the problem of rising sea levels.

By: Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:20:06 +0000

Nope … you have it wrong guys. a) Much of this water exists above sea level … therefore as it melts it … guess what? … runs INTO the sea, thus affecting water levels. b) the current ice sheet acts as a plug, stopping other land-bound glaciers from moving toward the coast and facing the same fate, thus also raising the ocean levels. At least that’s how it works with the Greenland glaciers, and I can only assume that it is a similar case in the Antarctic.

Or to put it another way … if you fill up a glass to the brim, then keep dumping ice cubes into it from the counter does it run over? ’nuff said.

By: Pieter Folkens

Pieter Folkens — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:58:28 +0000

A couple of important facts were left out of the article. That part of Antarctica with the Wilkins Ice Shelf includes a string of the most active volcanoes on that continent. The 5°F rise alluded to in the article is heavily biased by temperature sensors not far from the volcanic active area. If the temperature sensors on the Antarctic peninsula were removed, the remaining temperature sensors located elsewhere on the continent would show a distinct cooling trend over the past decade.

By: Interfacer

Interfacer — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:52:06 +0000

Another way to see this effect is if you freeze water in a bottle. We all know that we have to leave some room for expansion or the bottle will burst as the water freezes.

Ice displaces more volume than water. So the only ice that adds to the volume of the water is any ice that is above the water – and we all know – that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Interfacer.