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World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

graphics.reuters.com

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Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#21

Post by 83 »

_hao wrote: post #4

I know this can potentially sound very stupid given the actual size, but can't we bomb it (target specific parts with a lot of firepower) in an attempt to break it up if it poses such a danger to actual wildlife if it collides/approaches the island? The ocean then potentially will carry some of the pieces away and miss the island?

Why do people always feel the need to interfere with nature? Looking at their diagram of penguin colonies it looks like at most 40% could be blocked from the sea by this iceburg. Yes it will suck for the half of the island that gets wiped out but in 10 years when this thing is melted and gone the penguins from the other side will reestablish colonies and life will go on.

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#22

Post by davio »

salicideblock wrote: post #16
yread wrote: post #15

Beautiful page, but I still don't get why it's a big deal? Iceberg gets stuck next to an island - surely it won't completely envelop it. The map shows the island is dotted with penguins breeding grounds so not all are going to be blocked, probably way less than half even. In the area where it will drag on the seabed some of the life will be probably destroyed, but this area can't be very large compared to the size of…

The article explains several other effects to wildlife that you are skipping over. Namely, disruption to coastal food chain by melting freshwater, and the longer round trip for penguins feeding their chicks. > Surely, penguins can deal with some floating ice? some floating ice ?? The "beautiful page" has plenty of diagrams explaining the extent of this ice. It is the size of Jamaica. The largest floating ice object i…

More like an ice country than an iceberg

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#23

Post by toomuchtodo »

83 wrote: post #21
_hao wrote: post #4

I know this can potentially sound very stupid given the actual size, but can't we bomb it (target specific parts with a lot of firepower) in an attempt to break it up if it poses such a danger to actual wildlife if it collides/approaches the island? The ocean then potentially will carry some of the pieces away and miss the island?

Why do people always feel the need to interfere with nature? Looking at their diagram of penguin colonies it looks like at most 40% could be blocked from the sea by this iceburg. Yes it will suck for the half of the island that gets wiped out but in 10 years when this thing is melted and gone the penguins from the other side will reestablish colonies and life will go on.

Because we can, and we are nature too.

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#24

Post by ch4s3 »

netman21 wrote: post #13

It's just a damn ice sheet. I don't see how this is a disaster.

It's the size of Jamaica and could plow through the near shore sea bed, and block off access to feeding grounds for the penguins on the island. Basically everything below the water will be crushed, and everything on land will starve.

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#26

Post by s1artibartfast »

salicideblock wrote: post #16
yread wrote: post #15

Beautiful page, but I still don't get why it's a big deal? Iceberg gets stuck next to an island - surely it won't completely envelop it. The map shows the island is dotted with penguins breeding grounds so not all are going to be blocked, probably way less than half even. In the area where it will drag on the seabed some of the life will be probably destroyed, but this area can't be very large compared to the size of…

The article explains several other effects to wildlife that you are skipping over. Namely, disruption to coastal food chain by melting freshwater, and the longer round trip for penguins feeding their chicks. > Surely, penguins can deal with some floating ice? some floating ice ?? The "beautiful page" has plenty of diagrams explaining the extent of this ice. It is the size of Jamaica. The largest floating ice object i…

>The largest floating ice object in recorded history.

from the article: there have been only five larger than A68a in the last 34 years. The biggest, B-15, measured 11,000 square kilometers when it broke from Antarctica’s Ross ice shelf in March 2000.

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#27

Post by kitd »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #20

South Georgia Island is where Shackleton and his small crew landed, intentionally, in a storm using only dead reckoning in a lashed together boat, then did a never-before attempted 36 hour wintertime crossing over the island from the remote side to the populated side in the dead of winter. They had to do this because their exploration ship, the Endurance, got crushed and sank as they attempted (again) to trek to the…

I recommend this book if anyone wants an "anti-gravitational" read about it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Vo...

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#28

Post by IanDrake »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #26
salicideblock wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article explains several other effects to wildlife that you are skipping over. Namely, disruption to coastal food chain by melting freshwater, and the longer round trip for penguins feeding their chicks. > Surely, penguins can deal with some floating ice? some floating ice ?? The "beautiful page" has plenty of diagrams explaining the extent of this ice. It is the size of Jamaica. The largest floating ice object i…

>The largest floating ice object in recorded history. from the article: there have been only five larger than A68a in the last 34 years. The biggest, B-15, measured 11,000 square kilometers when it broke from Antarctica’s Ross ice shelf in March 2000.

And 34 years is a blink of an eye in geological time.

Re: World’s biggest iceberg heads for disaster

#30

Post by secondcoming »

> "What we’re particularly worried about is that this iceberg doesn’t have a very deep keel,” Tarling said. “So the amount of iceberg under the water isn’t as much as you would normally expect for an iceberg like this.”

If this thing is a massive ice cube floating in the sea then surely they know how much of it is under the water?

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