http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20020509/sc_nm/environment_glacier_dc_1
Giant Glacier Falls Into Ocean
Near New Zealand
Thu May 9, 2002, 5:57 PM ET
By Chris Baltimore
[ See
Satellite Pictures and Animations here... ]
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - A huge ice shelf 10 times bigger than
Manhattan has plummeted into the sea near New Zealand, U.S.
government scientists said on Thursday, adding urgency to
warnings that global temperatures are rising for the worse.
The news follows the March collapse of the so-called Larsen B
ice shelf in Antarctica in the Weddell Sea near Chile --
which was the size of a small European country.
The collapse on the
Ross ice shelf -- in the Ross Sea near the
Pacific Ocean and New Zealand -- is about 41 nautical miles
long and 4 nautical miles wide.
It was spotted by the
National Ice Center in Suitland, Maryland,
which analyzed infrared photos taken on May 5 by a military
satellite. The collapse likely occurred over the last two weeks,
a spokesman for the center said.
The Ice Center gathers
data for the U.S. Department of Defense,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
and U.S. Coast Guard.
The collapse is a result
of so-called calving, as constant motion
by polar ice caps fractures the ice into sometimes-large fragments
that float loose into the sea.
Green groups pointed
to the ice shelf collapses as evidence that
emissions of greenhouse gases are causing global temperatures
to
rise and the polar ice caps to melt.
For meteorological
reasons, glaciers are one of the first
indicators of rising planetary temperatures, said Kalee Kreider,
a global warming expert at the National Environmental Trust.
"They're a canary
in the coal mine for the global warming
trend," Kreider said.
Carbon emissions from
power plants and factories have been
linked to global warming, which scientists warn could lead
to massive flooding and rising ocean levels. The United
States is the world's largest emitter of so-called
greenhouse gases.
