Friday, May 11, 2012

West Antarctic Ice Shelves Tearing Apart at the Seams

Rifts along the northern shear margin of Pine Island Glacier (upper right of image). Credit: Michael Studinger, NASA’s Operation IceBridge.
West Antarctic Ice Shelves Tearing Apart at the Seams: "A new study examining nearly 40 years of satellite imagery has revealed that the floating ice shelves of a critical portion of West Antarctica are steadily losing their grip on adjacent bay walls, potentially amplifying an already accelerating loss of ice to the sea."