glaciers

Scientists closely monitoring the Antarctica Peninsula have just reported new rifts on the Wilkins Ice Shelf that make it dangerously close to breaking away from the continent entirely -- and becoming a free-floating iceberg the size of Connecticut.

The rate of the melt is alarming -- some 15 years ahead of scientific projections.

The researchers, who are from the European Space Agency (ESA), reported the implications on the agency's website:

If the ice shelf breaks away from the peninsula, it will not cause a rise in sea level since it is already floating. However, ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula are sandwiched by extraordinarily raising surface air temperatures and a warming ocean, making them important indicators for on-going climate change.

Read More

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Stacy Feldman's blog
• Add new comment
• send to friend

The images of melting mountain glaciers speak loud and clear.

Evidence the Cordillera Blanca, aka the "Peruvian Switzerland."

The disappearing snow-topped northern mountain range -- a UNESCO-declared natural world heritage site -- topped the climate change agenda at last week's European Union-Latin America and Caribbean (EULAC) Summit, held in Lima, Peru.

And here's why.