Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Giant crack glimpsed in Antarctic ice sheet

World Nov. 04, 2011 - 06:00AM JST ( 12 )

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12 Comments

0

SerranoNov. 04, 2011 - 09:03AM JST

Shut all the factories down now!
0

nandakandamandaNov. 04, 2011 - 09:47AM JST

An iceberg of 880 square kilometers? The size of Brazil? Something doesn't add up...
0

TumbleDryNov. 04, 2011 - 12:20PM JST

Now we need some exa liters of whisky.

Gonna be drunk enough to bare a "The Day After Tomorrow" re-run.
2

Jack SternNov. 04, 2011 - 12:31PM JST

What did the iceberg say to the other iceberg? "I don't get your drift".
0

cactusJackNov. 04, 2011 - 01:50PM JST

Good time to build a Titanic II.
0

FadamorNov. 04, 2011 - 10:09PM JST

I would have thought Brazil covered more area than 880 km^2.
0

nandakandamandaNov. 04, 2011 - 11:37PM JST

Thank you Fadamor. 880 km sq is the size of New York.
0

NeverSubmitNov. 04, 2011 - 11:47PM JST

Had the giant glaciers that once covered North America never broken up then America as we know it could not have existed at all.

Glaciers form and then they melt. Those are the cycles of nature.
0

FadamorNov. 05, 2011 - 12:05AM JST

Had the giant glaciers that once covered North America never broken up then America as we know it could not have existed at all.

The glaciers from back then are what carved-out the Finger Lakes in New York and the earth pushed by the glaciers is what created the land mass now known as Long Island. Now the nearest glaciers are... Greenland?
0

FadamorNov. 05, 2011 - 12:25AM JST

Looks like Agence France Press dropped the ball on this article. MSNBC has completely a different description of the crack.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45138155/ns/us_news-environment/

"When the iceberg breaks free it will cover about 340 square miles of surface area," NASA stated. By contrast, New York City comes in at 302 square miles.

As far as icebergs go, however, 340 square miles isn't anywhere near a record. A few have topped several thousand square miles and the record is a 12,000-square-mile behemoth spotted in 1956.

(340 mi^2 = 880 km^2)

(12,000 mi^2 = 31,079 km^2)

So even the record-holding iceberg back in 1956 never even came CLOSE to matching the area of Brazil.
0

FadamorNov. 05, 2011 - 12:32AM JST

LOL. I just took a look at the entire continent of Antarctica and the ice-covered portion is 13,720,000 km^2 in area. For an iceberg to break off and have the same area as Brazil (8,514,877 km^2), that would mean over half the ice on Antarctica was now floating away.

FAIL: AFP
0

YuriOtaniNov. 05, 2011 - 02:42AM JST

According to my math it will take 45 years to break off unless it breaks off 1/2 the distance or 22.5 years or so.