Wilkins Ice Shelf

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a huge glacier on the western Antarctic Peninsula. Scientists fear that global climate change is causing the ice shelf to break up and melt.

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Every cloud has a silver lining – Antarctic glacier retreat creates new...

From a British Antarctic Survey Press Release. Next time some alarmist wails about ice melt in Antarctica, point them to this story that shows nature has self regulating features for our planet. (h/t to Hu McCullough) Antarctica glacier retreat creates new carbon dioxide store Issue date: 09 Nov 2009 Number: 11/2009 Antarctic Peninsula Map (click to enlarge) Large blooms [...]

From wattsupwiththat.com ()

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New Ocean Carbon Sink Blooms as Antarctic Ice Retreats Rapidly

photo: Wikipedia. There aren't too many good un-anticipated consequences when it comes to climate change, but here's one: Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have discovered that in areas of open water left exposed by rapid ice melting around the Antarctic Peninsula, large new blooms of phytoplankton are occurring. As the blooms die off they sink to the bottom, Read the full story on TreeHugger

From treehugger.com ()

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Glacier Retreat in Antarctica Has Unexpected Benefit

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has been studying glaciers in Antarctica, looking at their reducing surface area. As the glaciers retreat, more open water is exposed, and lead author of a new study, Professor Lloyd Peck of the BAS found that large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton are flourishing in areas of open water left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula...

From matternetwork.com ()

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British 'penguin tourists' trapped in Antarctic ice

MORE than 100 penguin-loving tourists including dozens from Britain are trapped by ice off Antarctica aboard a Russian ice-breaker cruise ship... The Kapitan Khlebnikov is in a bay near Snow Hill island, located off the northeastern end of the Antarctic Peninsula, and cannot leave as the bay is sealed off with ice... Everything is calm aboard the ice-breaker, nothing is threatening the passengers and crew... There were 105 passengers aboard...

From freerepublic.com ()

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Ships warned about icebergs headed for New Zealand

From: www.ap.org

Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said. The area is not a major shipping lane and few sailors are out in November — spring in the southern hemisphere — but ships that traverse the area have little hull protection and could be significantly damaged by a collision with an iceberg, which typically has 90 percent of its mass under water. "It's an alert to shipping to be aware these potential hazards are around and to be on the lookout for them," Maritime New Zealand ... Read Full Story

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Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand

From: www.ap.org

Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that hundreds of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday. The nearest one, measuring about 30 yards (meters) tall, was 160 miles (260 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand's Stewart Island and was part of a "flotilla" of icebergs that can be seen on satellite images, Australian glaciologist Neal Young said. The alert comes three years after cold weather and favorable ocean currents saw dozens of icebergs float close to New Zealand's southern shores for the first time in 75 years. New Zealand maritime officials ... Read Full Story

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Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand

From: www.ap.org

Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that groups of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday. The alert comes three years after cold weather and favorable ocean currents saw dozens of icebergs float close to New Zealand's southern shores for the first time in 75 years. Rodney Russ, expedition leader on the tourist ship Spirit of Enderby, spotted one iceberg Monday, 57 miles (92 kilometers) northeast of Macquarie Island and heading north — about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of New Zealand. The iceberg was up to 500 feet (150 ... Read Full Story

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Antarctic ice loss vaster, faster than thought: study

From: www.afp.com

The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study. Published Sunday in Nature Geoscience, the same study shows that the smaller but less stable West Antarctic icesheet is also shedding significant mass. Scientists worry that rising global temperatures could trigger a rapid disintegration of West Antarctica, which holds enough frozen water to push up the global ocean watermark by about five metres (16 feet). In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels would rise ... Read Full Story

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East Antarctic ice began to melt faster in 2006: study

From: www.reuters.com

LONDON (Reuters) - East Antarctica's ice started to melt faster from 2006, which could cause sea levels to rise sooner than anticipated, according to a study by scientists at the University of Texas. In the study published in Nature's Geoscience journal, scientists estimated that East Antarctica has been losing ice mass at an average rate of 5 to 109 gigatonnes per year from April 2002 to January 2009, but the rate speeded up from 2006. The melt rate after 2006 could be even higher, the scientists said. "The key result is that appear to start seeing a large amount of ice loss in East ... Read Full Story

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