Published: October 2011. Prepared by: Buildings Department 12/F-18/F Pioneer Centre. Mathematics is far more fraught with debate and disagreement than you might imagine. Arguments about things some of the smartest physicists have trouble understanding. Collapse of Enormous Antarctic Ice Shelf Imminent. In a dramatic development, the giant rift in the Larsen C ice shelf has grown an additional 1.
There’s now very little to prevent a complete collapse—an event that will produce one of the largest icebergs in recorded history. As documented by scientists at Project MIDAS, a mere eight miles (1. Between May 2. 5 and May 3. January. What’s more, the rift has taken a sharp turn towards the ocean, and it has breached a zone of soft “suture” ice near the Cole Peninsula. As noted by Project MIDAS, “there appears to be very little to prevent the iceberg from breaking away completely.” Scientists have been monitoring the crack in Larsen C for several years, but the rift experienced a major growth spurt this past December when it lengthened by 1. The 3. 00- foot- wide crack advanced an additional six miles (1. January, and earlier this month a second crack appeared at the leading edge. It’s the tip of this second crack that’s now headed straight for the ocean. When it calves, the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 1. The resulting iceberg will feature an area around 2,3. If the shelf calves without breaking, it’ll be the size of Trinidad and Tobago, or twice the size of Rhode Island, and be among the largest icebergs ever recorded. Back in 2. 00. 0, a 4,2. B- 1. 5 emerged from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, and in 1. A- 3. 8 broke free from the Filchner- Ronne Ice Shelf. While calving events are a natural process on ice shelves, the big ones like this are an dramatic sight to behold.
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