5 Months After Last Major Calving, Pine Island Glacier About To Drop A 96 Square-Mile Berg

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FYI

No one else has reported on this yet but, another massive chunk of ice will soon break off of West Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier.

Pine Island is crumbling rapidly, it is located adjacent to the very vulnerable Thwaites ice stream, both of which drain into the Amundsen Sea embayment. Pine Island is configured in such a way that it is susceptible to thinning and disintegration. The ice stream has developed a troubling new way of losing ice, with rifts forming in the center of its floating ice shelf from beneath, rather than from the sides. Pine Island last calved a major iceberg on November 7, 2018.

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The ice sheet in this area is grounded 6500 feet below sea level, which makes it more exposed and vulnerable to rapid melting at its base from warm ocean water, and to the rapid retreat of the grounding line.

It is not uncommon for the fast-moving glacier to calve an iceberg every 10 years or so, but recently the frequency has been just a few months. Smaller bergs break off even more frequently.

EDIT

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/4/18/1851395/-Pine-Island-Glacier-will-dump-yet-another-96-square-mile-iceberg-into-the-Amundsen-Sea