Over the summer of 2016 in the southern hemisphere, the world’s largest ice shelf, Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, suffered a massive surface melt event that covered an area larger than the state of Texas, with the meltwater pooling in some areas for over two weeks.
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A $17 million expedition aimed at studying the effects of climate change in Canada’s Hudson Bay has been postponed due to complications brought about by climate change itself. An unusually heavy southward flow of surface ice from the Arctic has blocked the safe passage of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, on the first leg of her mission to ferry 40 scientists participating in the Hudson Bay System Study (BaySys).
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Despite the assumption by many individuals that the detrimental effects of global warming are theoretical events that are far into the future, there are communities in the United States that are already faced with the reality of relocating due to sea level rise caused by global warming. While numerous communities around the world are already planning to relocate due to the loss, or imminent loss of land to the ocean, two such communities in the U.S. have already received funding to migrate to more stable land, in what may be a harbinger for larger coastal populations in the near future.
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The massive crack running through Antarctica’s fourth-largest ice shelf dramatically accelerated its growth last month, extending over 11 miles in just six days. According to the UK-based Project Midas research group, the 110 kilometer (68 mile) long chasm extended an additional 17 km (11 miles) between May 25 and May 31.
The crack’s course has also suddenly turned seaward, with only 13 km (8 miles) remaining before the ice front calves off. Provided the ice front stays intact after calving, the resulting iceberg would account for more than ten percent of Larsen C’s area, a 5,000 square kilometer (1,150 sq mi) island of ice 350 meters (1,150 feet) thick, approximately the size of the state of Delaware. A berg that size would be one of the largest on record.
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