Fresh Water, Anyone?

Giant ice island calves off Greenland glacier

Greenland glacier calves ice island 4 times the size of Manhattan, UD  researcher reports

An “ice island” four times larger than Manhattan calved from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier on August 5, 2010, the biggest such event in the Arctic in 48 years, Andreas Muenchow, a researcher at the University of Delaware reported.

The new ice island is about 100 square miles (60 square km) with a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building (height 450m), Muenchow said.

“The freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or Hudson Rivers flowing for more than two years. It could also keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days.”

Satellite image acquired on Aug. 5, 2010, shows the huge ice island calved from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier. Source: Prof. Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware.

“Petermann Glacier, the parent of the new ice island, is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean.” UDel reported.

Greenland’s Petermann Glacier in 2009. Source: Prof. Andreas Muenchow, University of Delawar

The ice island is expected to enter Nares Strait, a waterway between northern Greenland and Canada.

“In Nares Strait, the ice island will encounter real islands that are all much smaller in size,” Muenchow said. “The newly born ice-island may become land-fast, block the channel, or it may break into smaller pieces as it is propelled south by the prevailing ocean currents. From there, it will likely follow along the coasts of Baffin Island and Labrador, to reach the Atlantic within the next two years.”

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Related Links:

• May Global Temperature Warmest on Record
• Welcome to Anthropogenic Hell 2010
• Greenland Glacier Slides Much Faster in Summer
• Valley of the Rocks Avalanche: Deafening Thunder
• Collapse Headlines – 15 July 2010

• 2010 Disaster Calendar [April]
• Greenland Ice Sheet Losing Ice Mass
• Iceberg off Mertz Glacier ‘disrupt ocean currents’?
• The Great Antarctic Peninsula Ice Shelf Extinction
• Arctic ice cover third-smallest area on record

• Bay of Bengal Island Disappears
• Collapse Diary

Famine in China, India If Himalayan Melt Continues

Is Earth Round?

Does heat melt the ice, or make it last longer?

Himalayan Glaciers Are Really Melting!

Himalaya from the International Space Station. Astronauts on board the International Space Station took advantage of their unique vantage point to photograph the Himalayas [28 January 2004,] looking south from over the Tibetan Plateau. The perspective is illustrated by the summits of Makalu [left (8,462 metres; 27,765 feet)], Everest [middle (8,848 metres; 29,035 feet)] , Lhotse [middle (8,516 metres; 27,939 feet)] and Cho Oyu [right (8,201 metres; 26,906 feet)] — at the heights typically flown by commercial aircraft. NASA Photo ID: ISS008-E-13304. See also: Himalayas Pan

Indisputable Fact #1 [Even by the Flat Earth yardstick wielded by the ‘Corporment*-instructed folks’ at you know where in the UK.]

The temperatures in the Himalayan mountain range have increased by between 0.15 and 0.6 degrees Celsius (0.27 and 1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade in the last 30 years [3 x the decadal increase,] exponentially accelerating the rate by which glaciers are melting.

Indisputable Fact #2

Vast lakes made by shrinking glaciers in the region threaten to burst, burying dozens of villages downstream in Bhutan and Nepal.

Indisputable Fact #3

The locals say each year for the past 30 or so years feels to be warmer than the previous year.

Indisputable Fact #4

By far many more experts believe that temperatures are changing, and that the warming is happening more rapidly at altitude, than those who oppose climate change as fiction.

KHUNJERAB Pass, Pakistan: Himalayan glaciers feed 10 rivers including Asia’s seven greatest: Brahmaputra, Ganges, Huange He, Indus, Mekong, Salween (Thanlwin), Yangtse and Yellow rivers. Up to 1.5 billion people are dependent on the Himalayan lifelines. Photo Credit: Olivier Matthys/EPA. Image may be subject to copyright. Source.

Indisputable Fact #5

Himalayas Glaciers, a 2,400-km  range that feed Asia’s ten largest rivers, provide lifelines for up to 1.5 billion Asians in half dozen countries downstream. Any “alarmist”  finding could prove very costly for the governments in those countries.

India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh recently cited questionable research an the Indian geologist, Vijay Kumar Raina, categorically denying that climate change was causing any of Himalayan glaciers to melt, and that some of them were actually advancing.

The minister was banking on the fact that there’s a lack of scientific data in the region, which has been described as a “blank spot.”

But the consensus among the scientific community is that ” most glaciers will be gone in 40 years as a result of climate change,” according to Prashant Singh, leader of environmental group WWF’s Climate for Life campaign.

FEWW Comment: What is being ignored by most glaciologists is the behavior of glaciers after partial melt. The mathematical models widely assume that the glaciers would stay near stationery and just melt away until they dry up and disappear. There’s no provision made for the highly probable impact of earthquakes, landslides and the lubricating effects of meltwater on the upper layers of ice.

Up to 1.5 billion people, and more added each year, are dependent on the Himalayan glaciers lifelines. Less water would lead to drought affecting agriculture throughout the region and leading to famine, disease, war and unimaginable number of deaths.

[* Corporment: Government run by corporate interests]

Related Links:

• Glacial retreat in Himalaya
• Canceling Your Life Insurance Policy with Nature