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A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

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Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#11

Post by milcron »

tominous wrote: post #2

> "I have spent so much time now looking at the satellite images, and I really love this ice shelf, it would be such a tragic thing to see this thing go." Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. We humans can fall in love with large chunks of ice just by looking at them long enough. How will we ever bring ourselves to terraform another planet?

Bringing ourselves to terraform another planet will be very easy -- the one who pushes the button will be one who hasn't looked at the planet long enough to be attached to it.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#12

Post by duskwuff »

jkubicek wrote: post #3

If we took a fleet of tug-boats and towed this ice to the Middle East, I wonder how long the fresh water would last?

Or -- while we're thinking geoengineering -- could we limit how much ice breaks off by deliberately making a cut (or a series of breaks in the ice) from the current end of the crack straight out to sea?

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#13

Post by duskwuff »

Infernal wrote: post #8

The crack in Larsen C grew around 30 kilometres in length between 2011 and 2015. And as it grew, also became wider — by 2015, yawning some 200 meters in length. It feels pedantic, but honestly something so fundamental as confusing length and width makes this much more difficult to read at first glance than it should be.

I don't see any confusion there. The "length" of the crack is its long dimension, from end to end, and the "width" is how far the two sides have spread away from each another.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#14

Post by Retra »

duskwuff wrote: post #12
jkubicek wrote: post #3

If we took a fleet of tug-boats and towed this ice to the Middle East, I wonder how long the fresh water would last?

Or -- while we're thinking geoengineering -- could we limit how much ice breaks off by deliberately making a cut (or a series of breaks in the ice) from the current end of the crack straight out to sea?

If that would work, then there wouldn't be a crack there in the first place.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#15

Post by phkahler »

duskwuff wrote: post #13
Infernal wrote: post #8

The crack in Larsen C grew around 30 kilometres in length between 2011 and 2015. And as it grew, also became wider — by 2015, yawning some 200 meters in length. It feels pedantic, but honestly something so fundamental as confusing length and width makes this much more difficult to read at first glance than it should be.

I don't see any confusion there. The "length" of the crack is its long dimension, from end to end, and the "width" is how far the two sides have spread away from each another.

>> I don't see any confusion there.

"And as it grew, also became wider — by 2015, yawning some 200 meters in length."

They use "wider" and "length" to describe the same 200 meter span.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#16

Post by latj »

tominous wrote: post #2

> "I have spent so much time now looking at the satellite images, and I really love this ice shelf, it would be such a tragic thing to see this thing go." Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. We humans can fall in love with large chunks of ice just by looking at them long enough. How will we ever bring ourselves to terraform another planet?

"Its its got to be us or them, its going to be them." --The Humans

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#17

Post by jfoutz »

tominous wrote: post #2

> "I have spent so much time now looking at the satellite images, and I really love this ice shelf, it would be such a tragic thing to see this thing go." Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. We humans can fall in love with large chunks of ice just by looking at them long enough. How will we ever bring ourselves to terraform another planet?

Let's see how terraforming this one works out before we go off terraforming another.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#18

Post by stcredzero »

jfoutz wrote: post #17
tominous wrote: post #2

> "I have spent so much time now looking at the satellite images, and I really love this ice shelf, it would be such a tragic thing to see this thing go." Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. We humans can fall in love with large chunks of ice just by looking at them long enough. How will we ever bring ourselves to terraform another planet?

Let's see how terraforming this one works out before we go off terraforming another.

Terra-deforming?

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#19

Post by zaken »

From the article, regarding sea level rise:

  When ice shelves lose large chunks, it does not raise sea level because these
  bodies are already afloat. However, the loss of an ice shelf can speed up the
  seaward flow of the nonfloating glacial ice behind it, and this ice can in turn
  contribute to sea-level rise. Researchers have estimated that the loss of all
  the ice that the Larsen C ice shelf currently holds back would raise global
  sea levels by 10 centimetres.
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