Larsen A and Larsen B iceshelves marked in red

The Larsen Ice Shelf (67°30′S 062°30′W) is a long, fringing ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to the area just southward of Hearst Island. Named for Captain Carl Anton Larsen, who sailed along the ice front in the Jason as far as 68°10'S during December 1893. Download high resolution version (519x774, 32 KB)Approximate locations of the missing Larsen A and Larsen B ice-shelves I created this map using this online map creation tool. ... Download high resolution version (519x774, 32 KB)Approximate locations of the missing Larsen A and Larsen B ice-shelves I created this map using this online map creation tool. ... Ross Ice Shelf An ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. ... The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean. ... Antarctic Peninsula map Booth Island and Mount Scott flank the narrow Lemaire Channel on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. ... Cape Longing (64°33′ S 58°50′ W) is a rocky cape on the east coast of Graham Land, forming the south end of a large ice-covered promontory which marks the west side of the south entrance to Prince Gustav Channel. ... Hearst Island (69º25´S 062º10´W) is an ice-covered, dome-shaped island lying 6 km east of Cape Rymill, off the eastern coast of Palmer Land. ... Carl Anton Larsen (b. ... Jason was a Norwegian whaling vessel laid down in Rødsverven, Norway in 1881. ...

In finer detail, the Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of three shelves that occupy (or occupied) distinct embayments along the coast. From north to south, the three segments are called Larsen A (the smallest), Larsen B, and Larsen C (the largest) by researchers who work in the area. The Larsen A ice shelf disintegrated in January of 1995. The Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated in February of 2002. The Larsen C ice shelf appears to be stable.

The Larsen disintegration events were unusual. Typically, ice shelves lose mass by iceberg calving and by melting at their upper and lower surfaces. The disintegration events are linked to the ongoing climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula, about 0.5 °C per decade since the late 1940's as result of global warming. An iceberg (a partial loan translation, probably from Dutch ijsberg (literally: mountain of ice),[1] cognate to German Eisberg) is a large piece of ice that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. ... Surface temperature of Antarctica in winter and summer The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on earth, with the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth being -89. ... Antarctic Peninsula map Booth Island and Mount Scott flank the narrow Lemaire Channel on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. ... Global mean surface temperatures 1850 to 2006 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades and the projected...

Larsen B ice shelf

An image of the collapsing Larsen B Ice Shelf and a comparison of this to the U.S. state of Rhode Island.

During 2002-01-31–2002-03-07 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up. 3,250 km² of ice 220 m thick broke off. The shelf could have been stable for up to 12,000 years ago, essentially the entire Holocene period since the last ice age, according to Queen's University researchers [1]. By contrast, the Larsen A Ice Shelf "was absent for a significant part of that period and reformed beginning about 4000 years ago, according to the study". Image File history File links Larsen_B_Collapse. ... Image File history File links Larsen_B_Collapse. ... Official language(s) None Capital Providence Largest city Providence Area  Ranked 50th  - Total 1,214* sq mi (3,144* km²)  - Width 37 miles (60 km)  - Length 48 miles (77 km)  - % water 32. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (67th in leap years). ... The Holocene epoch is a geological period that extends from the present day back to about 10,000 radiocarbon years, approximately 11,430 ± 130 calendar years BP (between 9560 and 9300 BC). ... Queens University, generally referred to simply as Queens, is a coeducational, non-sectarian, research-intensive university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. ...

This collapse has revealed a thriving ecosystem 800 m (half a mile) below the sea. "Despite near freezing and sunless conditions, a community of clams and a thin layer of bacterial mats are flourishing in undersea sediments. [...] The discovery was accidental. U.S. Antarctic Program scientists were in the northwestern Weddell Sea investigating the sediment record in a deep glacial trough twice the size of Texas" Livescience. An ecosystem, a contraction of ecological and system, refers to the collection of biotic and abiotic components and processes that comprise and govern the behavior of some defined subset of the biosphere. ... Littleneck clams: Rocks with food inside. ... See also: Biofilm A bacterial mat is a layer of bacteria that may form in environments where other organisms are unable to thrive (e. ... Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of water or other liquid. ... Categories: Stub | United States | Antarctica ... The physicist Albert Einstein is probably the most famous scientist of our time. ... Official language(s) English (de facto) See also languages of Texas Capital Austin Largest city Houston Area  Ranked 2nd  - Total 268,581 sq mi (695,622 km²)  - Width 773 miles (1,244 km)  - Length 790 miles (1,270 km)  - % water 2. ...

Popular culture

The Larsen B Ice Shelf is the subject of a song by the band British Sea Power. "Oh Larsen B" appears on their 2005 album Open Season, and contains the lyric "my favourite foremost coastal antarctic shelf ... oh Larsen B, oh won't you fall on me ... desalinate the barren sea". Often mis-quoted as "desalinate the Barents Sea" which has caused confusion as the Barents Sea is in the Arctic. A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (commonly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Open Season is the second album from the Brighton-based English band, British Sea Power. ... Location of the Barents Sea. ... The red line indicates the 10°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border Satellite image of the Arctic surface The Arctic is the region around the Earths North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. ...

The ice shelf has also been made the subject of a song by instrumental metal/drone band 5ive. The song, "Sleep For The Larsen B Shelf," appears on their The Telestic Disfracture album. Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds. ... Drone can refer to many things: // In eusocial insects, a male bee, ant or wasp. ...

Larsen B Ice Shelf appeared also in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow where a huge chunk of ice fell off as Hall proclaimed 'the last chunk of ice that fell off was about the size of Rhode Island'. This opening sequence paves the way for the events to follow in the rest of the film. This articles trivia section has too much trivia. ...

The disintegration of the shelf is referenced in Al Gore's environmental documentary film An Inconvenient Truth as evidence in support of global warming. Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. ... An Inconvenient Truth book cover An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary film about climate change, specifically global warming, directed by Davis Guggenheim and starring former United States Vice President Al Gore. ... Global mean surface temperatures 1850 to 2006 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades and the projected...

External links and references

Wikinews has news related to:

Larson B ice-shelf collapse reveals exotic organisms isolated for 10,000 years

• U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center
• Instituto Antártico Argentino
• Animation of Larsen B breakup, 31 January to 7 March 2002
• warmest summer on record leads to disintegration
• Public Release, 3 August 2005, "Ice shelf disintegration threatens environment, Queens study"
• The Independent, 4 August 2005, "Ice shelf collapse was biggest for 10,000 years"