The biblical deluge isn’t just a fairy tale: Miles of Antarctic ice collapsing into the sea

1

Miles of Antarctic ice are collapsing into the sea.

I don’t think the biblical deluge is just a fairy tale.

MILES OF ICE COLLAPSING INTO THE SEA In Antarctica, antarctica ice collapse, antarctica ice melting, antarctica ice moves
MILES OF ICE COLLAPSING INTO THE SEA In Antarctica

I don’t think the biblical deluge is just a fairy tale,” says Terence J. Hughes, a retired University of Maine glaciologist living in South Dakota. “I think some kind of major flood happened all over the world, and it left an indelible imprint on the collective memory of mankind that got preserved in these stories.”

We went to Antarctica to understand how changes to its vast ice sheet might affect the world.

Ice sheets flow downhill, seemingly in slow motion. Mountains funnel the ice into glaciers. And ice flowing from the land into the sea can form a floating ice shelf.

The acceleration is making some scientists fear that Antarctica’s ice sheet may have entered the early stages of an unstoppable disintegration.

Because the collapse of vulnerable parts of the ice sheet could raise the sea level dramatically, the continued existence of the world’s great coastal cities — Miami, New York, Shanghai, and many more — is tied to Antarctica’s fate.

Four New York Times journalists joined a Columbia University team in Antarctica late last year to fly across the world’s largest chunk of floating ice in an American military cargo plane loaded with the latest scientific gear.

Follow us: Facebook and Twitter

1 Comment

Leave a reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.