Antarctic ice nearly size of N.Y. City breaks up--Icebergs calve off ...

[Blue_Roses]

after ice bridge stabilizing shelf collapsed in early April



msnbc.com news services
updated 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

BERLIN - New satellite images from the European Space Agency show massive amounts of ice are breaking away from an ice shelf on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said Wednesday.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Researchers believe it was held in place by an ice bridge linking Charcot Island to the Antarctic mainland.

But the 127-square-mile bridge lost two large chunks last year and then shattered completely on April 5.

"As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front, widened and new cracks formed as the ice adjusted," the European Space Agency said in a statement Wednesday.

The first icebergs started to break away on Friday, and since then some 270 square miles of ice have already dropped into the sea, according to the satellite data. That's nearly the size of New York City and much more is expected to break off.

"There is little doubt that these changes are the result of atmospheric warming," said David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30477787/

[BOSSHOG]

1. This is nothing more then liberal propaganda

All the brilliant and open minded and fair and balanced conservative scientific minds will tell anyone with a TV camera that there is no such thing as global warming and that man (white man) can do no wrong in the universe.

[bdamomma]

2. oh crap.

this is not good news.