Huge Unstoppable Ice Island Threatens Oil Rigs and Shipping

An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland.

Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes — and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenland iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912.

Like we really need another oil spill catastrophe?

"It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo.

Few images can capture the world's climate fears like a 100-square- mile (260-sqare-kilometer) chunk of ice breaking off Greenland's vast ice sheet, a reservoir of freshwater that if it collapsed would raise global sea levels by a devastating 20 feet (6 meters).

news.yahoo.com...

So why don't they just start cutting huge chunks off this thing and delivering them to countries in need of water?

So they'd literally have to move entire oil rigs if this thing crosses over into the Nares Strait...

Researchers are in a scramble to plot the trajectory of the floating ice shelf, which is moving toward the Nares Strait separating Greenland's northwestern coast and Canada's Ellsemere Island.

If it makes it into the strait before the winter freeze — due to start next month — it would likely be carried south by ocean currents, hugging Canada's east coast until it enters waters busy with oil activities and shipping off Newfoundland.

Crushed by Ice Island. :shk: Sounds like a bad movie plot.

One way of stopping it would be to melt it but unfortunately other consequences will become apparent.
Yes I do know the size of the ice but who mentioned melting it by conventional means?

reply to post by TrueAmerican


If we can't stop an iceberg, even this big, with all our advanced tech, what hope have we got if a meteor heads towards us???

Why not just tie a rope around it and get Oprah for an anchor

i would like to be the first to recommend nuke option.......



But seriously it cant be moving that fast, rigs would have time to disconnect and move out of the mega bergs way.

[edit on 11-8-2010 by The Great Day]

Just put a couple of hundred generators on it - get them to start churning out vast quantities of hot water in a grid - melt water (even cold) penetrates ice really quickly.

These can then be dynamited with mining explosives and break it up into regions - oh wait - even an iceberg one kilometer across is going to wipe anything out. A Nuke will not solve this problem.

Are they absolutely sure it broke off? Could a laser-type thing (satellite) have cut it out so it would become dislodged?
Just a thought. could be possilbe.
It seems action in alot of events have been stepped up quite a bit, probably before everyone finnally catches on and figures it all out.

Keep everyone in a whirl---get us looking in one direction, while more crap is getting started elsewhere.

my guess.

What was the saying?

oh yes, Order out of Chaos.

Originally posted by triplereiki
Are they absolutely sure it broke off? Could a laser-type thing (satellite) have cut it out so it would become dislodged?
Just a thought. could be possilbe.
It seems action in alot of events have been stepped up quite a bit, probably before everyone finnally catches on and figures it all out.

Keep everyone in a whirl---get us looking in one direction, while more crap is getting started elsewhere.

my guess.

Probably same laser that caused a glacier in Canada to let go resulting in a huge land slide.....huge.

www.theglobeandmail.com...
[edit on 11-8-2010 by The Great Day]

According to the article it may take the berg a year or two to get to where the oil rigs are. It also said the berg would be broken up considerably by the time it got there. Plus I'm sure TPTB could break it up even more before it gets to the shipping lanes and oil rigs.

I don't think melting it is a good idea. It says that if collapsed, the chunk would raise global sea levels by 20 feet.

So why don't they just start cutting huge chunks off this thing and delivering them to countries in need of water?

That's the best idea I've heard. Refrigerated/ice box barges. They said on the news it's enough fresh water to keep every Cdn home taps running for 3 years. There is a lots of places that need that water desperately.

Too bad it'll probably just float around aimlessly, with no one doing anything about it, other than the odd doomy news report.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

That makes no sense. If it's floating it's already displacing it's own weight of water.


Oh, I see. That's talking about something else. The whole Greenland ice sheet.

[edit on 8/11/2010 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage




Yeah, I guess you're right. That's one of those sentences that can be interpreted a couple different ways. I should have thought about the weight displacement...

Always count on Phage to keep things around here straight up, with a touch of "you stupid idiot" always embedded in the tone.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

No attitude intended (this time). At least not toward you.
It really is a poorly constructed statement in the article, easily misconstrued.

reply to post by Phage


ok then.

So what's your take on what to do about this floating menace? Should it be just left to Mother Nature to deal with it, and hope for the best? Or should we try to divert it somehow, melt it, blow it up, or what?

reply to post by TrueAmerican

We should put a giant magnifying glass in orbit and use it to melt the sucker. (Or maybe HAARP )

Really, I don't know what can be done about it. But I do know that, human nature being what it is, nothing will be done until the last possible moment.

[edit on 8/11/2010 by Phage]

Originally posted by Phage
We should put a giant magnifying glass in orbit and use it to melt the sucker.

Well, I see two major problems with that.

1) Since this island of ice is floating, and therefore moving, the huge magnifying glass would constantly need to be adjusted. And then of course you also have the problem of how to keep a giant magnifying glass in orbit in the first place.

2) The temptation for the Chinese or the Russians to sabotage it, divert the sukka and melt the White House instead. Hmm, I am kinda liking that idea, on second thought.

Really, I don't know what can be done about it. But I do know that, human nature being what it is, nothing will be done until the last possible moment.

I'd have to agree there. If it's threatening the oil rigs and shipping, then I suppose it could be argued that it is the oil and shipping industry's problem.

Someone conjectured that it was cut loose by a laser.

A laser could be used to cut it into smaller pieces that would melt before they could do much danger. A death by a million cuts or something.