Mammoth iceberg breaks free

Mammoth iceberg breaks free

www.sbs.com.au

An iceberg bigger than the ACT knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe, researchers said Thursday.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Saw this reported on the local news station. They commented that this chunk of ice is big enough to disturb ocean currents which in turn could affect weather.
Would anyone like to speculate how and what could change weather wise? If the southern circulation pattern is disrupted, would that in turn affect the northern hemisphere circulation? Will it affect el nino and la nina events? Aust. Weatherman...where are you?

www.sbs.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Good catch.

More:

This 97 km long slab of ice is a remnant of an iceberg of more than 5,000 sq km that broke off, or calved, in 1987, making it one of the largest icebergs ever recorded in Antarctica.

The Mertz glacier iceberg is among the largest recorded for several years. In 2002, a iceberg about 200 km long broke off from Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf. In 2007, a iceberg roughly the size of Singapore broke off from the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica.

Massom said the shearing off of the ice tongue and the presence of the Mertz and B-9B icebergs could affect global ocean circulation.

Giant iceberg breaks off from Antarctic glacier

Also note:

"The calving itself hasn't been directly linked to climate change but it is related to the natural processes occurring on the ice sheet," said Rob Massom, a senior scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre in Hobart, Tasmania.

Whew! No direct link to climate change.

Here is a pic of the iceberg off Mertz Glacier Tongue:
Mertz Glacier Tongue and nsidc.org...
www.aad.gov.au...


Of course, this iceberg did not suddenly break off. A crack was reported in May of 2009 when it was presumed that a huge iceberg would result: www.abc.net.au...
and as usual, at the time experts did not know what the cause of crack was.

[edit on 26-2-2010 by zenius]

[edit on 26-2-2010 by zenius]

I'm glad someone at ATS can discuss climate change without screaming about their taxes! Glad I don't own any coastal property but seriously, the changing of the global coastal streams is a frightening prospect.

My understanding that our biggest concern now may be the release of methane gas from the melting of the permafrost. The USA has blinders on and has turned this all into a tax issue...it's just mind boggling.

This is a size of a small ice cube in a bathtub. 80km2 + (whatever how deep it is) It's hard to say because the size of it in comparison to the rest of the world is very very small.

The problem with the ice around the world that continues to melt is not so much a rise in sea level. The oceans begin to become diluated and this can have devasting effects on our planet. For one if the water becomes diluated enough with fresh water it offsets the salt in the water. Now this may not seem to be an issue, but it is a huge one. The salt in the water is pushed around the world and I think it's in the artic where it sinks when it meets with colder water or something to that effect. Anways the sinking of the salt causes the currents around the entire world and if it becomes too diluated then the currents will stop completley. If this happens it is estimated that within 10 years the world will go into an ice age because without the movement of water it will just contnue to freeze and eventually it will consume the worlds oceans.

reply to post by stigup


Thank you for your simple explanation. That was what I was after. I didn't realisw it was the salt that was the catalyst, I thought it was the cold and warmer areas of water, the cold which sinks and the warmer rises above it, much like the atmosphere. That's what causes the upwelling of the colder water with the effects of the Southern Oscillation Incex (la nina/el nino).

Anyway, I think the last huge iceberg that broke off is not far off WA in south western Australian waters, much smaller than it was originally of course. It will be interesting to watch where this one goes if anywhere at all. If it stays where it is we should start watching the ocean currents.