For melting glaciers, size matters

Posted at 10:12 AM on August 27, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Science

We're running out of ways to describe the size of ice chunks breaking off in the Arctic and Antarctica, especially given our geographically-challenged nature.

When a huge chunk broke off in Antarctica, experts described its scale as the size of Connecticut.

Today, LiveScience.com reports, a "Bermuda-sized" chunk of ice broke off from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in Canada. Is that big? It's hard to say: There are 200 islands in Bermuda. But if you add them all together, they add up to only 21 square miles.

So it's either the size of a huge chunk of the ocean. Or it's equivalent to two-thirds the size of Woodbury, which doesn't really sound that big. For the record: You can fit 168 Woodburys into Connecticut.

Here's what it looked like 8 years ago:

Here's what it looked like a week ago:

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories