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Yellow Submarine to Explore Antarctic Ice Shelf
Reuters
PUNTA ARENAS, Chile – A yellow robot submarine will dive under an ice shelf in Antarctica to seek clues to world ocean level rises in one of the most inaccessible places on earth.
The 7-meter (22 ft) submarine, to be launched from a U.S. research vessel, will probe the underside of the ice at the end of the Pine Island glacier, which is moving faster than any other in Antarctica and already brings more water to the oceans than Europe’s Rhine River.
Scientists have long observed vast icebergs breaking off Antarctica’s ice shelves — extensions of glaciers floating on the sea — but have been unable to get beneath them to see how deep currents may be driving the melt from below.
They are now stepping up monitoring of Antarctica, aware that any slight quickening of a thaw could swamp low-lying Pacific islands or incur huge costs in building defenses for coastal cities from Beijing to New York.
The rate of flow of the Pine Island glacier in west Antarctica has quickened to 3.7 km (2.3 miles) a year from 2.4 km in the mid-1990s.
“It’s taken everyone by surprise,” Adrian Jenkins, leader of the “Autosub” mission at the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters just before leaving this week after preparations in Chile. The submarine cost several million dollars to develop.
“If you just make measurements at the ice front all you have is a black box,” Jenkins said. “What we are doing is observing what is going on within the box.”
Antarctica holds more than 90 percent of the world’s fresh water and would raise ocean levels by 57 meters (190 ft) if it were all to melt, which would take thousands of years.
The U.N. Climate Panel projected last year that world sea levels would rise between 18 and 59 cms (7-24 inches) by the year 2100, driven by global warming caused mainly by human emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
“Pine Island glacier and the glacier alongside, the Thwaites, are moving faster than any other glaciers in Antarctica,” said Stan Jacobs, the chief scientist on the ice breaker, of Columbia University in the United States.
“They are also accelerating,” he said aboard the U.S. Nathaniel B. Palmer vessel in Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile just before the 54-day voyage.
THINNING SHELF
Pine Island, Thwaites and the nearby Crosson glacier add 0.25 mm a year to global sea levels — 2.5 cms over a century even if unchanged.
The Autosub, driven by 5,000 batteries of the kind used to power torches, has a top speed of 3.4 knots, a range of 400 kms (250 miles) and can dive to 1,600 metres. The Pine Island ice shelf is about 400 meters thick at its seaward edge on the Amundsen Sea.
Other projects the research vessel will carry out include tethering devices to the seabed to monitor ocean temperature, salinity and currents for two years.
At Pine Island, the thinning of the shelf seems to be linked to a shift in deep ocean currents that are bringing warmer water from the depths and melting the ice. No one knows why. On the Antarctic peninsula further north, several ice shelves have disintegrated in recent years apparently because of a 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) warming of air temperatures in the past 50 years that may be linked to global warming. In much of Antarctica, temperatures are little changed.
Whatever the causes, glaciers may slide off the land more quickly if ice shelves vanish, adding water to the ocean and nudging up sea levels.
“You have to start worrying whether the system is speeding up, moving ice more rapidly into the ocean than it was even 50 years ago,” Jacobs said. Shifts in winds might be causing currents to suck warmer water from deeper parts of the ocean.
The submarine, which takes sonar readings and measurements of the saltiness of the water under the ice — glacier ice is made of fresh water — is the successor to one lost near the start of a similar mission in 2005 beneath an ice shelf in east Antarctica.
“People are surprised to hear that it’s powered by 5,000 ‘D’ sized alkaline torch batteries,” said Steve McPhail of the British National Oceanography Center in Southampton who engineered the Autosub.
“This is the most economical way of powering a submarine like this,” he said. The submarine is due to make a half-dozen missions under the ice — its route has to be programed in advance but it can maneuver around hazards.
He said the submarine is yellow because it makes it easy to spot when it surfaces, and its color has “absolutely nothing” to do with the Beatles song “Yellow Submarine.”
January 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
What a crock! Even the thugs of the UN say “global warming” has been over since 1998. Of course, if you put your thermometers under A/C exhausts, you can argue for warming, and thus get billions in government grants - instead of having to get a job. Funny how “global warming” directly coincides with sunspot activity. Go hug a tree or something.
January 10th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Great news! Love the every ready bunny concept & fact we are looking for information to help us all change the world - one yellow submarine at a time…
January 11th, 2009 at 4:04 am
5,000 batteries of the kind used to power torches
A torch is powered by propane or gasoline and etc.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I am an active promoter of the environment, but some of the things that have society fearing a global catastrophe are scientifically wrong…take a glass, fill it with ice, then fill it to the brim with water. The notion that icebergs melting will raise the water level also states that the ice melting in this cup will make the cup overflow…however, the cup’s water level stays the same…people need to make a conscience effort to reduce vehicle use and power companies need to research alternative energy sources, but we need to spend our money elsewhere, not on subs to research ice shelves. Our time is better spent with alternative energy sources.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Are you at Fox News nuts? How about fair and balanced….
the ice at the poles has increased to the level seen in the 70s,
How long are you going to perpetuate this hoax?
January 13th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I’ve been to Antarctic in 2005… amazing place! Good luck yellow submarine…
January 13th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
How many folks will it take to prove that Big Al is a twit ! When I heard that the N.W.Passage was accessabile in the 70’s I thought that was cool.ha.ha . Sub’s breaking ice @ the same time. Polar bears were not as many, go check the stats.Find out other than hype that the world will change & we can’t stop it !Carnivores need food & when it’s scarce, what happen’s ? I don’t need Big Al to let need know’ it’s just common scence,science, knowledge! It’s all to suck the more money out of your pockets!!
January 13th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
To add to my opinion,did’nt they find a mountain under the ice and that’s 2 miles thick. That’s the s.pole?Why not talk about pollution that man being down there causes! The U.S. dumps all kinds of junk & caustic waste into the Antartic Ocean,since it’s not allowed back into this country,it came from somewhere else. The DEP
or otherwise won’t let the stuff come back to the USA. If bring it in, than I bring it out !
January 15th, 2009 at 8:54 am
The article said “coastal cities from Beijing to New York.” Beijing is over a 100 miles inland.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Why is it that studies of the Antarctic Ice are only done in the southern hemisphere summer and the Arctic Ice are only done in the northern hemisphere summer? Is it because there is way too much ice in the hemispherical winters to get into these areas to study the ice? I guess all of those summer pictures tell a lot. Especially when the word summer is replaced with winter. It makes better ‘global warming’ propaganda when that change is made. What a crock.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
If you find that the ice is melting, what are you going to do to stop it? Don’t you think you are wasting the tax payers money. You are worring
about something that might never happen and if it dose you can’t do any thing about it and beside that you won’t be here to see it any way.
Thank You
January 15th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
1.”Torch” is the word for a flashlight in England and Australia..probably others.
2 Granted Iceburg melting does not raise ocean levels but land based Glaciers do.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
The little yellow submarine will find that a volcano in the area has become more active in the last several decades. Gook gook a joob (sic) This happens every several hundred thousand years as the thickness over the hot spot changes due to continental drift. I am the egg man and the walrus told me it is true.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
They mean torch in the British sense, what we would call a flashlight.
January 16th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Mr. Babcock:
Some countries refer to flashlights as “torches”
therefore batteries are used.
I’ve Got to go, the lift to my flat is here, did you encounter a terrible diversion on the motorway today as I did?
January 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
They’d better hurry! That ice shelf is growing larger every day.
January 16th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Isn’t the “torch” the Brit refers to what we Americans call a flashlight?
January 20th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
They might be surprised at what else they find like garbage. I was down in McMurdo in the late 80’s and I saw garbage being piled on the ice pier
which was a large as a football field and turned lose to drift in the Antarctic current. This had been going on for several decades until Al Gore came down for a visit and threw a fit. I’ll bet there are mountains of garbage that might be seen.
January 20th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Lorne Babcock:
The “torches” referred to in this article are known in the US as “flashlights”. This article must have been written by a non-American.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:19 pm
You’re all a bunch of morons, except for the guy that pointed out that Beijing is 100 miles inland.
If all the ice was in the water already than of course it wouldn’t change if it melted, but it’s not, it’s on land. Try adding chunks of ice to a full cup of water and tell me it doesn’t overflor. It more than physics, it’s common sense…you dolt.
Secondly, they do their research during the summer time because what they really want to study is how much ice stays theres year round. Of course some seasonal snow melt and glaciers recede during summer, but ho much is staying and replenishing what’s there? That’s why they call them ice caps and not snow.
And just f’in where are you getting your data that polar ice has actually increased? Try reading some scientific journals. Just because some prominent individual says it doesn’t make it true. It needs to be backed up by evidence and all the evidence points towards a widespread decrease.
All of you who think this is fearmongering and propoganda can go on believing your whole out of sight out of mind ideas….just please for the sake of this planet quit breeding. If we don’t get more people to actually try to make a difference it’s fools like you that will be our demise.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Incredible. Absolutely incredible. I was a member of the US Navy’s former “Operation Deep Freeze” Antarctic Program, and I currently live in New Zealand, about 10 miles from where Raytheon Polar Services operate the program now. The Navy got out of the Antarctic transportation service in 1998, while I was assigned there. Global warming attributed to or caused by man is a hoax. It simply isn’t true. The planet goes through cooling and warming cycles all the time. Matter of fact, there was a cooling trend in the mid-1800’s that sent a “mini ice age” around the earth. So what if a little ice melts? Humans will move to higher ground, and we might lose some islands in the Pacific, but we’re talking that it’s not going to happen for another hundred years, and that’s plenty of time for people to relocate or build barriers. “Global Warming” is just a buzz word for liberal greed. I know because I have actually been to Antarctica.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Further to the above comment from “Dan” regarding the rubbish at McMurdo, it was removed in 1995 and 1996, and all cleaned up. And yes, British commonwealth countries all refer to a flashlight as a “torch”, but I couldn’t tell you exactly why.
January 21st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
AL GORE TOLD US IN HIS INCONVENIENT TRUTH THAT FOREST FIRES CONTRIBUTE 30% OF THE CARBON TO THE ATMOSPHERE. HE ALSO SAID THAT IF WE UNDERTAKE ALL THE GREEN INITIATIVES POSSIBLE TO REDUCE MANKIND’S CARBON CONTRIBUTION THEN WE CAN REDUCE THE CARBON LEVEL BY 1%. CLEARLY IF WE WANT TO REDUCE CARBON IN THE ATMOSPHERE THE METHOD WITH THE BIGGEST IMPACT IS TO START FIGHTING FOREST FIRES. CURRENTLY IN THE USA WE ONLY FIGHT 1% OF THE FOREST FIRES. COME ON GREENIES LET’S START FIGHTING THE FOREST FIRES. THIS WILL ACTUALLY STIMULATE THE ECONOMY INSTEAD OF THROTTLING IT.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Will we ever realize that there is no such thing as induced global warning. The planet goes through cycles and at the moment is it entering a cooling phase.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Only algore is ignorant and arrogant enough to believe in induced global warming.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
So if we are to believe this non-sense, in one hundred years the ocean level will rise 1 inch, or about a foot every 1200 years. Hmmm, let’s spend more money on this, and give the idiot another Nobel.
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
S-o-o-o much disinformation to refute, so little time!
“Big Al” is right: the facts are in, the time for debate is LONG over. “Global Warming” is real, and it is largely caused by man. All of you contradicting this are either liars, or fools, self-deceived.
Even Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming) got it right: “the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC’s main conclusions”.
That is, “The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity has caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era, and the observed warming cannot be satisfactorily explained by natural causes alone.”
So just as I said: it is real, it is caused by man. And it threatens to be a major problem.
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I have read that the issue is that seawater is salty and salty water is denser than fresh water. The icebergs being fresh water produce a volume of fresh water greater than the previously displaced volume of sea water. If you try this experiment in your fridges, half fill a glass with cold, salty water. Add a (non-salty) ice cube and mark on the glass where the water is. Then watch where the water is after the ice cube has melted.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
Kevin,you are correct in most of your reply, however
to say that the ice caps at the poles are getting smaller is not altogether true. The coverage in the northern hemisphere has grown back to the levels of the 1970’s per NOAA and NASA.
As for Al Gore blaming global warming/climate change completely on mankind, misses another point, the fact that all of the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) all are experiencing roughly the same amount of warming.
Calling people fools for not following your belief system is also short sighted, and shows a lack of knowledge of the subject you seem to know a little about.
Please consider your words more carefully in the future.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
It’s all natural. It’s happened before several times. Part of huge cycle(s) that take tens of thousands of years to happen.
We’ve now altered the current cycle. We pollute way too much. That’s the way we are. Get over it.
OK, So we’ll go extinct. That’s it. End of story.
Eventually the tectonic plates will scrape the continents clean of most of our crap. Some sort of life will go on without us. Happy now?
(Hey ape children, Go kill/rape/smash something and eat/grope/hump it already.)
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Global Warming today is following the global cooling of yesterday 1300-1400s to 1940s. Most likely going to go longer so all you idiots that live close to sea level need to make plans to move. This global climate change has happened before, but we never had soo many stupid people populating the coastlines.
You would think the occasional tsunami/huricane would discourage them. Shame on the Goracle for blaming us inlanders for the problem.