Friday March 28, 2008

Western Antarctic ice chunk collapses

news.yahoo.com, euronews.net, news.nationalgeographic.com :

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan [or four times the size of Paris] suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday [25 Mar 2008]. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile [414 square km] chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28 [2008]. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years. This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan.

Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse for rare pictures and video. The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse. Vaughan had predicted the Wilkins shelf would collapse about 15 years from now. The part that recently gave way makes up about 4% of the overall shelf, but it's an important part that can trigger further collapse.

- It looks like climate change is going exponential, or "approaching a tipping point", in the fashionable news-speak of the day. It might or might not be the technological singularity that the Kurzweil and Vinge fans have been looking for, but multiple singularities, none of them good, in terms of runaway climate change, resource depletion crises, financial crises, hyperinflation and so on, beyond which point the world as we know it is no longer recognizable.

See also :

1. Antarctic ice sheet is thinning : scientists
2. Antarctica under siege
3. Water found under Antarctic ice to raise sea level forecasts
4. NASA finds vast regions of West Antarctica melted in recent past
5. Scientists predict floods in New York from global warming
6. Threat of 16 feet rise in sea level

(2008-03-28 12:48:39 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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