http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/vast-ice-island-breaks-free... has teh story of the large ice sheet calving off Greenland. I was in Antarctica when Iceberg B-15 calved off and wreaked havoc with local conditions for 5 years and wiped out a lot of the sparse local wildlife also. I know that B-15b got little attention though it had enough volume to provide a pound of ice to every living person in the world when it separated.
The new calving looks like it will impact the ocean currents somewhat but not so badly as B-15 did though the location will cause a lot of concern for Europe if it manages to break out and disrupt teh local flow far enough out to interact bwith the oceanic stream. I ill be watching this though it may take years to break up something this large in the location it is now, that is if the temperatures there keep stable enough to slow down the erosion.
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Thinning is occurring all over, so it's more than just calving. So much for the deniers and their nonsensical claims that global warming isn't happening.
Greenland has also complained of an unusual amount of snowfall for the past few years. Remember in the winter time when conservatives were talking about how it was snowing so much in the United States? The truth is, it doesn't have to be all that cold to snow. It shouldn't be 32 degrees in Greenland. It should be much colder.
The amount of mositure that can be held in the atmosphere is determined by it's temperture. The warmer it is, the more it can hold. When cold air hits warmer moisture-laden air...it rains or snows. It lowers the temperature of the atmosphere...lowers it's moisture-holding capacity.
Air over the antarctic is so cold, it can't hold moisture...can't absorb moisture. . It seldom snows because there is no moisture in the atmosphere. Though covered in ice and snow, . the snow/ice is really, really old. .When snow does fall, it never melts. Antarctica is really a desert. Little percipitation.
If the normal "desert" and semi-desert regions of Greenland are receiving snowfall...something is amiss. Cold air from the north is hitting warmer moisture-containing air over Greenland....releasing the snow..
Warmer air moving into the U.S. contained more moisture than it used to. It was warmer..and held more moisture.. When the cold fronts from the north hit it...increased snowfall was the result.
In part, that's what created the massive flooding in Pakistan. Warmer air over the seas absorbed more moisture. When it reached its higher maximum capacity...it released a torrent. when the air currents moved over Pakistan..
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
The big ice berg that just launched will be tracked, and should be accounted for in shipping lanes. A hurricane might change it's position, but I don't think humans can do much about it, like towing it, pushing it, anchoring it, blowing the hell out of it might have a volcanic side effect, I don't know.
Clearly
It's probably morbid, but I'd like to see more footage broadcast and discussion of these big icebergs.
It seems like a weather item, but the Weather Channel rarely mentions anything about them - and yet they have airtime to spend on non-weather stories like the PG&E explosion this past week - including saying that since there was hardly any wind - weather played no factor in fighting the blazes (unlike the Colorado fire).