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From: rab@mimsy.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Antarctica Breaking up ??
Message-ID: <9328@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Nov-87 22:14:46 EST
Article-I.D.: mimsy.9328
Posted: Thu Nov 12 22:14:46 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Nov-87 17:42:27 EST
References: <677@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Reply-To: rab@mimsy.UUCP (Bob Bruce)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 20

In article <677@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> carlos@jplpro.JPL.NASA.GOV (Carlos Carrion) writes:
>Read in the paper this morning of an iceberg TWICE the size of
>Rhode Island breaking off from Antarctica. 
> ...
>But seriously folks...I know the Earth's atmosphere is getting warmer.
>Would this have anything to do with it or is the iceberg break off 
>just an extraordinary event??

Actually this isn't extraordinary at all.  If fact this one isn't
even especially large.  A few years ago I read about an iceberg
larger than Belgium that had broken off the Ross ice shelf.

Icebergs in Antarctica tend to be much larger than Arctic icebergs.
In the north glaciers tend to `calf' small, irregular icebergs
right where the land meets the sea.  In the Antarctic the ice
doesn't breakup until it is well out to sea, when a large
piece of the ice shelf breaks loose.

disclaimer: This is just from what I have read, I have never
actually been to Antarctica.