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That iceberg depicted is not part of an Antarctic ice sheet.
Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:21 am
by sklipper
That iceberg depicted is not part of an Antarctic ice sheet. It is a free floating mass of ice -- in this case temporarily attached to a field of sea ice -- that once calved off of the tongue of a coastal glacier which in turn, most likely, flowed down an ice stream coming off of a continental ice sheet
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:18 pm
by fastartceetoo
sklipper, would the calving of ice masses this large be the result of a normal, ongoing process? Or might the ice stream involved be accelerating? Just wondering...
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:35 pm
by BMAONE23
On an annualized basis, does the distance between the edge of the continental sheet ice and the edge of the solid ocean pack ice (the point where calving begins) increase, decrease, or remain the same every winter?
If the miles between the continental ice sheet and the point of calving is decreasing then the ice sheet itself must be shrinking as must be the total volume of ice contained at the south pole. (Unless continental drift has relocated the pole itself. If that happened then the total overall ice sheet could shift position without diminishing the total overall ice contained within.)