Loss of Antarctic ice 'tongue' could change seas.

The loss of a massive "tongue" of glacial ice on the Antarctic coast — a natural protective barrier nearly four times the size of New York City — could affect ocean circulation patterns and be a harbinger of changes to come from global warming, scientists on a mission to the frozen continent say.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Four times the size of NYC. Think about that for a moment. The deeper I got into the article,the more I realized how little I knew about the oceans and how truly fragile some things in nature are. Guys,this could be another harbinger of doom. If what they're saying is true,the changes could have devastating effects on already-troubled ocean currents and weather patterns. The Poles are definitely something we should be keeping an eye on. The dominoes seems to be falling...

i dont know why people arent taking this more seriously - this is big, and similarly in the gulf, thing which could affect the stream are happening.. these are major major things which could affect ice ages etc, yet people dont seem too concerned

Yep,the domino effect is what I'm wondering about. Loss of salinity in the oceans is something to take seriously.

Is this tongue of ice on land, or is it sea ice? If it's on land, then the melting ice could potentially raise sea levels. If it's already in water, then its already taking up more volume in its solid form so its melting would have no impact.

reply to post by FlyingJadeDragon


Here's an link that you may find interesting. It talks about James Balog (founder of Extreme Ice Survey). The video half way down the page has some time lapse photography of glaciers - scary stuff to say the least.

Link

reply to post by peter_kandra


To clarify this, the article is not talking about sea levels at all. It is talking about the effects that the oceans currents have on global climate patterns. This, according to these scientists, could cause a drastic change. Not because the ice is gone, but because the barrier that it created is gone.

But now, with the tongue gone due the collision, scientists fear it could trigger changes to the behavior of a major part of global ocean circulation patterns that shift heat around the globe via myriad currents at the surface and along the bottom.

www.msnbc.msn.com... same as OP

Edit- after re-reading what I wrote, I realized it could sound as if I am saying the barrier itself was effecting the currents. I just wanted to state that is not the case. read the article.

reply to post by StlSteve

That is a interesting video, and yes scary. but good images in the time-lapse. He worked hard to get those.

I will come back and read this I promise, but I must say my first instinct tells me that, "of course they are talking about this effecting the Atlantic Currents". I mean, God forbid if they should hug up to the fact that "they" did this by means of the GOM and what ever else they are spraying here and there!

Forcibly melting ice so that the people will say to themselves, "oh it is global warming!", when in fact it is all man-made or should I say evil hatched!

I love Scientist, they are so eager to please, please, please let me have another six months of pay, I promise I will behave! Yet I doubt anyone is getting their grants renewed properly and I doubt anyone is making the real breakthrough that we need to make.

Sorry, I must of woke up in the Real World! I am going back to bed!

Originally posted by peter_kandra
Is this tongue of ice on land, or is it sea ice? If it's on land, then the melting ice could potentially raise sea levels. If it's already in water, then its already taking up more volume in its solid form so its melting would have no impact.

It isn't so much the sea levels, it's the fresh water melting into the salt water. Different density (right word?) will affect how the currents flow.