Clipmarks | Wilkins ice shelf Clips

More evidence???

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:12:42 GMT

clipped by: mooner-one

Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Hanging by Thread’: European Scientists

PARIS - New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.

Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by its last thread” to Charcot Island, one of the plate’s key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release.

“Since the connection to the island… helps stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk,” it said.

Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, covering around 16,000 square kilometres (6,000 square miles), or about the size of Northern Ireland, before it began to retreat in the 1990s.

One idea is that warmer water from the Southern Ocean is reaching the underside of the ice shelf and thinning it rapidly from underneath.

Antartic ice shelf hanging by a thread

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:14:08 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks: We are doomed.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

A vast shelf of ice in Antarctica is hanging on to the continent by a thread and is not expected to survive, scientists announced today.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is experiencing further disintegration that could collapse an ice bridge connecting the shelf to Charcot Island. Since the connection to the island helps to stabilize the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk, the researchers said.

A major breakup was spotted in May, the second this year.

This third significant breakup is puzzling because it occurred in the Southern Hemispheric winter. It's also behaving differently than previous breakups.

"The scale of rifting in the newly-removed areas seems larger, and the pieces are moving out as large bergs and not toppled, finely-divided ice melange

"Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves

that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years

Tags: ice melt, antartica, climate change

Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:54:47 GMT

clipped by: jetcloud
clipper's remarks: 'The latest images, taken by Envisat's radar, say fractures have now opened up in this bridge and adjacent areas of the plate are disintegrating, creating large icebergs.
The Antarctic peninsula -- the tongue of land that juts northward from the white continent towards South America -- has had one of the highest rates of warming anywhere in the world in recent decades.

But this latest stage of the breakup occurred during the Southern Hemisphere's winter, when atmospheric temperatures are at their lowest.

One idea is that warmer water from the Southern Ocean is reaching the underside of the ice shelf and thinning it rapidly from underneath.

"Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years," researcher David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said.

"Current events are showing that we were being too conservati

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming

Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is "hanging by its last thread" to Charcot Island, one of the plate's key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release.

"Since the connection to the island... helps stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk," it said.

Since then several large areas have broken away, and two big breakoffs this year left only a narrow ice bridge about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles) wide to connect the shelf to Charcot and nearby Latady Island.

Scientists are puzzled and concerned by the event, ESA added.

Tags: antarctica, ice shelf, breaking up, winter!, omg

Ancient City discovered in Antarctica at crumbling Wilkins Ice Shelf..

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:07:28 GMT

clipped by: TJColatrella
clipper's remarks: Wow...

Clip Source: petermerel.newsvine.com

Ancient City Exposed By Melting Ice Shelf

Antarctica - In a startling scientific development yesterday Professor William Dyer (Geology, MU) reports discovery of ruins of an ancient city at the edge of the crumbling Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica.

Aerial photographs taken by Dyer show a sprawling stone city of permutahedra, cones, and non-euclidean forms. Professor Pabodie says these are, "unprecedented [...] atypical of ancient architecture in any other part of the world". Entering a fissure in one of the cones the two discovered a large petroglyphic mural they believe depicts a creation myth including the Moon separating from the Earth and marine forms similar to those discovered on the floor of the Ross Sea this antarctic summer.

Tags: antartica, global warming, wilkins ice shelf, ancient city discovered, science, archeology

Ice Shelf Collapses in Antarctica

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:23:15 GMT

clipped by: Yassin_M
clipper's remarks: A trend of "extraordinary warming" over the past 50 years in Antarctica has caused the loss of several ice shelves, Matthias Braun of Bonn University, and Angelika Humbert of Münster University, said in a statement.

The researchers also warned that the last strip of ice on Wilkins would disappear soon.

"The remaining plate has an arched fracture at its narrowest position," they said, "making it very likely that the connection will break completely in the coming days."

—Lauren Morse

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

ANIMATED PHOTO: Ice Shelf Collapses in Antarctica

June 16, 2008—Another large plate of ice has broken off the rapidly disintegrating Wilkins Ice Shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula, the above satellite images show.

While the ice shelf, located directly below South America, shrank significantly in previous months (see March images), this is the first documented occurrence of an ice shelf collapsing during the Southern Hemisphere's winter.

The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite revealed that approximately 62 square miles (160 square kilometers) of ice detached from the ice shelf between May 30 and May 31. This most recent loss narrowed the strip to a width of 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers).

The Wilkins Ice Shelf connects the islands of Charcot and Latady and protects many miles of Antarctica's ice shelves from additional collapse.

Ice Shelf Collapses in Antarctica

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:54:50 GMT

clipped by: syncopath

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

June 16, 2008—Another large plate of ice has broken off the rapidly disintegrating Wilkins Ice Shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula, the above satellite images show.

A trend of "extraordinary warming" over the past 50 years in Antarctica has caused the loss of several ice shelves

The researchers also warned that the last strip of ice on Wilkins would disappear soon.

"The remaining plate has an arched fracture at its narrowest position," they said, "making it very likely that the connection will break completely in the coming days."

Antartic Ice Sheet on Verge of Collapse

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:11:03 GMT

clipped by: Kauaiguy
clipper's remarks: Scientists fear that the entire Wilkins shelf, more than 6,000 square miles, could be next.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Huge Antarctic Ice Sheet on Verge of Collapse

Satellite images reveal that a large chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf fell into the ocean sometime around the end of February, suggesting that climate change could be causing it to disintegrate faster than scientists had predicted.

Tags: environment, global warming, science

Not good........

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:20:15 GMT

clipped by: mooner-one
clipper's remarks: ....is there anything we can really do? I dunno.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Giant Antarctic Ice Shelf Breaks Into The Sea

A vast hunk of floating ice has broken away from the Antarctic peninsula, threatening the collapse of a much larger ice shelf behind it, in a development that has shocked climate scientists.

Satellite images show that about 160 square miles of the Wilkins ice shelf has been lost since the end of February, leaving the ice interior now “hanging by a thread”.

The collapsing shelf suggests that climate change could be forcing change much more quickly than scientists had predicted.

“The ice shelf is hanging by a thread,” said Professor David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). “We’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”

The Wilkins shelf covers an area of 5,600 square miles (14,500 sq km). It is now protected by just a thin thread of ice between two islands.

Vaughan was a member of the team that predicted in 1993 that global warming could cause the Wilkins shelf to collapse within 30 years.

Slab of Antarctic ice shelf collapses

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:27:10 GMT

clipped by: boozich
clipper's remarks: wow...sure would have liked to see this live.

Clip Source: www.enn.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images show that a large hunk of Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent, scientists said on Tuesday.

The area of collapse measured about 160 square miles of the Wilkins Ice Shelf

located on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula about 1,000 miles south of South America.

"Block after block of ice is just tumbling and crumbling into the ocean,"

"The shelf is not just cracking off and a piece goes drifting away, but totally shattering. These kinds of events, we don't see them very often.

Antarctic ice shelf disintegrating as result of climate change, say scientists

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:04:23 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

This series of satellite images shows the Wilkins Ice Shelf as it begins to break up. The large image is from March 6. The images at right, from top...
Click here for more information.

Satellite imagery from the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows a portion of Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of the continent.

While the area of collapse involves 160 square miles at present, a large part of the 5,000-square-mile Wilkins Ice Shelf is now supported only by a narrow strip of ice between two islands, said CU-Boulder's Ted Scambos, lead scientist at NSIDC. "If there is a little bit more retreat, this last 'ice buttress' could collapse and we'd likely lose about half the total ice shelf area in the next few years."

Tags: climate

Ice Shelf Cracking

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:09:47 GMT

clipped by: Naomi-K

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

March 25, 2008—New satellite images reveal what scientists call the "runaway" collapse of an enormous ice shelf in Antarctica as the result of global warming.

The chunk of coastal ice was some 160 square miles (415 square kilometers) in area—about seven times the size of Manhattan.

"[It's] an event we don't get to see very often," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, said in a press statement.

David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey noted that the larger formation from which the chunk detached—the Wilkins Ice Shelf—could itself collapse in 15 years.

"Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on West Antarctica yet to be threatened," Vaughan said in the statement. "This shelf is hanging by a thread."

huge chunk of antarctica ice shelf breaks away

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:02:29 GMT

clipped by: sylviadafox

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s.

Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."

"Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble - it's like an explosion."

Since an ice shelf is a floating platform of ice, the break-up will have no impact on sea level. But scientists say it heightens concerns over the impact of climate change on this part of Antarctica.

not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment."

Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:44:45 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate.

Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s.

Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."

Tags: climate change, global warming, antarctica, wilkins ice shelf, science