News Update
Service
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 :
1000 Hrs
RSS Feeds

Sections

Top Stories

National

International

Regional

Business

Sport

Sci. & Tech.

Entertainment

Agri. &
Commodities

Index

Photo Gallery

The Hindu
Print
Edition

Front Page

National

Tamil Nadu

Andhra Pradesh

Karnataka

Kerala

Delhi

Other States

International

Opinion

Business

Sport

Miscellaneous

Index

Life

Magazine

Literary Review

Metro Plus

Business

Education Plus

Open Page

Book Review

SciTech

Entertainment

Cinema Plus

Young World

Property Plus

Quest

Folio

Antarctic ice shelf collapses

New York (PTI): A huge chunk of ice
measuring 13,680 square kilometers or about seven times the size of
Manhattan island has begun to collapse because of climate change in
the fast-warming region of Antarctica.

The scientists at the US National Snow
and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, USA, have
based their calculation on the satellite imagery received by it.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad plate
of permanent floating ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula,
about 1,600 kilometers south of South America.

In the past 50 years, the western
Antarctic Peninsula has experienced the biggest temperature increase
on Earth, rising by 0.5 degree Celsius per decade.

NSIDC Lead Scientist Ted Scambos, who
first spotted the disintegration in March, said, "We believe the
Wilkins has been in place for at least a few hundred years. But warm
air and exposure to ocean waves are causing a break-up."

Satellite images, scientists say,
indicate that the Wilkins began its collapse on February 28 and a
large iceberg, 41 by 2.5 kilometers, fell away from the ice shelf's
southwestern front, triggering a runaway disintegration of 405
square kilometers of the shelf interior.

The edge of the shelf crumbled into the
sky-blue pattern of exposed deep glacial ice that has become
characteristic of climate-induced ice shelf break-ups such as the
Larsen B in 2002. A narrow beam of intact ice, just 6 kilometers
wide was protecting the remaining shelf from further breakup as of
March 23, they said.

Scientists track ice shelves and study
collapses carefully because some of them hold back glaciers, which
if unleashed, can accelerate and raise sea level.

Sections: Top Stories | National | International | Regional | Business | Sport | Sci. & Tech. | Entertainment | Agri. & Commodities |
Index
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Contacts | Subscription

Group Sites:
The Hindu | Business Line | Business Line News Update |
Sportstar | Frontline | Publications | eBooks | Images | Home

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or
redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly
prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu