![]() The analysis found that simply thinning the ice shelf without changing the mélange actually closed the rifts and so did thinning both the ice shelf and the mélange. The thickness of the ice shelf, in this case, was not tampered with. The researchers found that only when the melange grew thinner that the rifts in the ice shelves grew larger. ![]() Not the glacial ice, but thinning melange They also modelled what happened to these rifts if only the ice shelf grew thinner because of melting, if only the mélange grew thinner, and if both grew thinner. They selected 11 rifts for their analysis. The scientists assessed the rifts in the ice shelf that were most vulnerable to breaking. The gluey melange helped the ice stick to the rock walls around the ice shelves. ![]() When it accumulates in a crack in an ice shelf, it creates a layer - thin but as hard as the surrounding ice - that holds the crack together. So to find answers, NASA scientists focused on the melange, which has natural properties similar to glue: It fills cracks or gaps and sticks to ice and rock. But this theory did not sit well with the Larsen C ice shelf split, because the ice had been frozen solid for months. Global warming contributes to weakening ice shelves as warmer ocean water erodes the underbelly of the ice shelves, while rising air temperatures weaken them from above. Ice mélange commonly occurs when ice breaks off the edge of a glacier. Ice shelves are floating extension of land ice and are firmly attached to the land. When this layer of melange, which helps the ice stick to the shelf, gets thinner, is when the cracks in the ice shelf grow bigger. The study found that mélange - a collection of windblown snow, broken icebergs and sea ice lodged in and around ice shelves and which is critical in holding ice shelves together - may cause the shelves to break up even faster due to rising air temperatures. ![]() The answer is in the ice-shelf behaviour - but peddled by the massive changes to Antarctic that can only be attributed to global warming. It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Years later, a new study by United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the University of California, Irvine, has discovered an ice process that may have caused the split. Researchers had attributed the phenomenal event, not to climate change, but to ice-shelf dynamics. When an iceberg, more than nine times the size of Mumbai in India, split off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf July 10-12, 2017, the scientific fraternity dived in to look for answers. – Hutto is a writer whose work can be found on McSweeney’s, the New Yorker and Reductress.The photo shows a rift that, within a few months, widened even farther and released a Delaware-size iceberg from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf in 2017. Russia: Iceberg Is Big Like Bear, but Also Weak and Breaks Like American Political System North Korea: Iceberg Submits to Glorious Leader Kim Jong Un’s Order to Break Off of Antarctica Washington, D.C.: An Iceberg the Size of Delaware Breaks off of Antarctica (Seriously, Delaware is Bigger than We Thought – Why Are We Still Living Near The White House?) New Jersey: An Iceberg the Size of the Potholes in the George Washington Bridge Breaks off of Antarctica Chris Christie Claims Ice for His Family’s Daiquiri PartyĮngland: Massive Iceberg Breaks off of Antarctica Theresa May Plans Vote on Banning it from Melting in English Waters New York City: An Iceberg with Unfortunately No Vacant Apartments Breaks Off of Antarctica Northern California: An Iceberg Bigger than Snapchat’s IPO Breaks Off of AntarcticaĬanada: An Iceberg the Size of the Wall We’re Secretly Thinking About Building on the Southern Border Breaks off of Antarctica Southern California: Why It’s Now OK to Put Ice Cubes in Your Chardonnay Boca Raton, Fla.: An Iceberg the Length of Pearl’s Bathroom Break During the Bridge Game Breaks off of Antarctica
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