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Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses, March 2002 (1462 words) |
 | Based on studies of ice flow and sediment thickness beneath the ice shelf, scientists believe that it existed for at least 400 years prior to this event, and likely existed since the end of the last major glaciation 12,000 years ago (see more about Dr. Eugene Domack's research). |
| One idea is that meltwater seeping between ice crystals and warming of the shelf as a whole, reduces the fracture toughness of the ice so that the shelf shatters under the same stresses imposed by local geography and the flow it used to tolerate. |
| Once their ice shelves are removed, the glaciers increase in speed due to meltwater percolation and/or a reduction of braking forces, and they may begin to dump more ice into the ocean than they gather as snow in their catchments. |
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Bears on Ice - Glaciers & Continental Ice (1499 words) |
| When ice of land origin breaks away from a mass of ice from an ice wall, ice front or iceberg, the process is known as calving. |
| The ice sheet holds 90 percent of the world’s ice - 30 million square kilometres - which is 60 to 70 percent of its fresh water. |
| If all the ice in Antarctica were to melt the level of the worlds oceans would rise by 65 to 70metres and as the weight of the ice is removed it is estimated that the underlying rock would rise by 700 to 1000metres. |
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