You wouldn't know it from today's media coverage, but news of a superhot ocean is a much more consequential event for our world than the firing of a conspiracy-slinger on a right wing TV network that profits off disinformation and lies. Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone Magazine
The US Navy, the Coast Guard, and NOAA's United States National Ice Center have confirmed a significant break in the glacial stream of Vanderford Glacier in the Wilkes Land region (Australia Antarctic Division) of East Antarctica which fronts the Indian Ocean. The calved iceberg measures seven by four miles and was large enough to become known as Iceberg C40.
East Antarctica was always considered a stable region of the polar regions since the latter stages of the Last Interglacial Period (LIP) over 116,000 years ago when Earth was slightly warmer than it is today and seas were stable similar to today's levels.
Wilkes Land has a paleo-climatological record of melting, thinning, and retreating. This a worrisome finding since humanity's fossil fuel emissions have activated the tipping point for the eastern Antarctic. West Antarctica has already passed the milestone.
The United States National Ice Center names the icebergs that calve off the continent, and the agency is the only worldwide organization that monitors all Antarctic icebergs.
Iceberg names are derived from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted, divided in the following manner:
A = 0-90W (Bellingshausen/Weddell Sea)
B = 90W-180 (Amundsen/Eastern Ross Sea)
C = 180-90E (Western Ross Sea/Wilkesland)
D = 90E-0 (Amery/Eastern Weddell Sea)
Recently, Australian Antarctic researchers discovered a deep canyon over a mile below the ice at Vanderford Glacier. The canyon is believed to be highly vulnerable to warm deep water upwelling and, at one time, extended 37 miles from its original location and contributed to significant sea level rise.
All of East Antarctica's glaciers are understudied. We likely know more about the moon's surface than Antarctica's hydrology.
"The fact that there is such a deep canyon beneath this glacier would perhaps allow the possibility for warming waters to get underneath the glacier,
From the ABC in 2022 on the trench below the glacier:
The discovery also indicates the Vanderford Glacier in East Antarctica once extended 60km further than it currently does and had a significant role in rising sea levels.
Voyage leader Lloyd Symons said the canyon extended at least 3.5km underneath the glacier, which might be influencing how quickly the ice was melting.
The Southern Ocean circulates warming waters from around the world, pushing them deep towards Antarctica where they lap against the colder ice.
Satellite data from NASA indicates the surface height of the Vanderford Glacier has shrunk by about two metres since 2008.
East Antarctica has long been considered to be less affected by climate change than West Antarctica, which is below South America.
But recent studies of NASA satellite images indicate that is beginning to change, particularly around Vincennes Bay where the Vanderford Glacier ends.
The collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf in March of 2022, also located in Wilkes Land.
Usually, glaciers move at a glacial pace. The speedy collapse of the Conger's ice shelf came after some of the most dramatically warm weather ever observed in Antarctica. For the first time since satellite monitoring began in 1979, the sea ice extent around Antarctica dropped below 2 million sq km (770,000 sq miles). Less sea ice means more waves battering the ice shelves in front of the glaciers. Massive fields of sea ice off of Adelie Land, Wilkes Land and Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica completely disappeared.
The Shackelton ice shelf next door to Conger is also crumbling
Then in March, when the brief austral summer had already waned, a heat wave brought mind-boggling temperatures to East Antarctica. An extreme atmospheric river of water vapour stabbed into the heart of the continent, followed by a high-pressure "heat dome" that kept this warmth from dispersing. In the middle of the ice sheet, Russia's Vostok station, which once recorded the lowest temperature ever seen on Earth (-89.2C/-128.6F) in midwinter, enjoyed a comparatively balmy autumnal -17.7C (-0.1F).
At Dome C, the easterly apex of the sloping ice sheet, European researchers from the Concordia base staged a photo in swimwear under blow-up palm trees. The -10.1C (13.8F) temperature on March 18 was 38.5C (69.3F) higher than average, the biggest rise above normal observed by any weather station in history. Antarctica experts described the heat wave as "impossible", even "inconceivable".
While the heat may have contributed to the Conger ice shelf's collapse, Lieser thinks significant swell from two nearby storms probably struck the fatal blow. But concern that Antarctica may be entering an uncertain new era has only grown. This year, sea ice around the continent fell to a new record low. On 13 February 2023, the sea ice shrank to just 1.91 million square km (737,000 sq miles). "Will it turn around? Have we crossed a tipping point? That's the million-dollar question," Lieser says.
Meanwhile, Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica still has no sea ice. It took five months for the first report on Thwaites (other than mine) and the movement of Iceberg B22 from the sea mountain it was lodged on for twenty years. That's it, no further details at all. The particulars and ramifications are still unknown by those that even bothered to read that.
Nobody gives a shit.
This a comment from jfromGa in a previous diary of mine. Something to keep in mind.
A point this diary makes as it points out several routes to threats to production, heat, salt water intrusion, etc.
There have been several people taking up writing climate diaries and that is very good news indeed. But one theme emerged I want to push back against, that one of the crises is worse than the others. Heat, sea level rise, loss of potable water. One isn’t happening sooner, they are all happening simultaneously, and they just affect different people first.
snip
what we suffer from most is the failure of our professional news sources and politicians to tell the truth in public. So don’t compete among diarist to shout worst. It is all the worst and no one concern should be ignored in favor of the others. And have a nice day, try not to panic.