this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
250 points (97.7% liked)

World News

32290 readers
535 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Researchers are concerned about a huge chunk of ice larger than Mexico failing to refreeze as temperatures drop in Antarctica.

all 32 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Sarsaparilla@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago

Indeed. Antarctic sea ice extent is at record-breaking lows.

[–] itadakimasu@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"Chuck of ice", "failing to refreeze"

Wut?

[–] Letstakealook@lemm.ee 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, that wording is clunky. I guess, according to the article, the ice is known to melt and return in a cyclical pattern every year. This year almost a million square miles of ice did not form as expected.

[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 year ago

Take a look at this chart chart to see how much less ice there is than usual

[–] Roundcat@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The whole article is a bit clunky to read.

"The word 'unprecedented' gets thrown around a lot..." Are you trying to reach a minimum word count?

[–] Letstakealook@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Ha, I definitely recall writing sentences like that in school.

[–] uphillbothways@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Right now, it's winter in the southern hemisphere. Sea ice should be expanding around Antarctica, but it's doing so much less than previous years. It's so bad there's a chance there won't be any sea ice by the time it's mid summer there, in December/January/February. If that happens, there's nothing to stop the land glaciers from slipping into the sea and significantly raising sea levels worldwide. Could be like 10 feet of sea level rise depending on what happens. (Thwaites Glacier has been named in many articles as especially precarious and able to contribute 10 feet on its own.)

[–] kefirchik@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I share your concern over the risks posed by the loss of sea ice. However, per the Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, even if the entire glacier were to collapse it would amount to around a 65cm rise of sea level, and the majority of that would come in the 22nd and 23rd century.

https://thwaitesglacier.org/about/facts

[–] uphillbothways@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ok, cool. idk. Was just referencing stuff like this, from Wired: "If it totally melts, the Thwaites Glacier, aka the Doomsday Glacier, could add 10 feet to sea levels. Sea ice protects Thwaites and other glaciers because it acts like a buffer, absorbing the energy of winds and waves that would otherwise erode them."

https://archive.is/dyAkw#selection-1423.348-1431.183

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 4 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Researchers are increasingly concerned about a huge chunk of ice — larger in area than Mexico — failing to refreeze as seasonal temperatures drop in Antarctica.

"Unprecedented is a word that gets bandied around a lot, but it doesn’t really get to just how shocking this is," Hobbs, a sea ice scientist at the University of Tasmania, told The Guardian.

"There’s a sense that something weird is going on," Walt Meier, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, told The Guardian.

We've seen strong declines in the amount of Antarctica's sea ice since 2016, with experts still debating how much human activity is contributing to the trend.

Concrete evidence is proving hard to come by, due to the complexity of the continent and its surrounding ocean's dynamics.

"The Antarctic system has always been highly variable," Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told CNN.


I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] jay2@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

There's supposed to be quite a few things down in that ice. Some encased. Some not so much. Some natural. Some not so much.

[–] SomeGuyNamedPaul@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Don't dig up the Stargate, it never helps.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some natural. Some not so much.

What the hell is unnatural there?

[–] Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 2 points 1 year ago

If we ignore the fact that aliens somehow had to occur naturally and thus they're not unnatural... The answer's still no.

[–] jay2@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Well there is supposed to be a 4-sided pyramid (similar to Gaza but bigger) and also some kind of large underground base for UAP.

What is there? I dunno. Sometime after Operation Highjump, It was decided that folks like us are no longer permitted to go there. It could be an intergalactic puppy farm for all I know.

But I do like the mystery.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 2 points 1 year ago

I just created the summary! You can find it at https://lemmings.world/comment/972741.