OT? Breaking News! Trillion Ton Iceberg 2x's The Volume Of Lake Erie Breaks Off From Larsen C, Antarctica!
They say it's also almost the size of Delaware, so even if you don't consider yourself as living on this earth, then it's still on topic because Delaware barrows our winged helmet & because the total loss since '95 there is about the size of New Jersey, our fenced Garden!
"Indeed, the front of Larsen C ice shelf has retracted back farther than ever previously observed, according to Eric Rignot, a glaciologist with NASA and the University of California, Irvine.
"The ice front is now almost 40 km farther back," said Rignot by email. "A similar evolution was seen on Larsen A and B before they collapsed in 1995 and 2002 respectively," he added, referring to Larsen C's now missing northern cousins.
If you add together all the ice lost from the various Larsen ice shelves since the 1970s, it is around 7,350 square miles, according to figures provided by Rignot. That is a little bit smaller than the state of New Jersey."
"I think we're all scratching our heads as to just what combination of changes in the ice, air, and ocean caused this," said Scambos. "It's unclear if this is a new trend for this area of Antarctica. The case for a climate-related cause is not nearly as good as for other areas of Antarctica."
But Eric Rignot, the NASA and University of California, Irvine researcher, is convinced of a climate role.
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"For me, there is no doubt that this event is not part of a natural cycle," he said by email. "The Larsen C ice shelf will not collapse for another few decades, most likely, but this calving is unique in the history of the ice shelf since first seen by human eyes by the Norwegian explorer Carl Anton Larsen in 1893."
"Rignot observed that Larsen C's northern cousin Larsen B, which collapsed in 2002, is believed to have previously held its position for over 10,000 years and something similar is probably true of Larsen C."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-antarctica-iceberg-20…