Marina Alfano
Mr. Ippolito
D Block Odd
8 February 2017
Current Event 2: A Crack in the Antarctic Shelf has grown 17 Miles in the past month.
A crack in Antarctica's fourth-largest ice shelf has been growing rapidly, at a rate of 5 football fields per day and scientists are worried that it is nearing a full break. The crack reaches around 100 miles in length and has 20 miles left until it breaks off and becomes one of the largest recorded icebergs in history. It reaches all the way to the bottom of the ice shelf, a total of ⅓ of a mile deep with a maximum width of 2 miles. The iceberg is likely to break free within the next few months, due to the amount of stress that the crack is placing on the small area of attachment to the mainland. Ice shelves are a result of glacial runoff and they act as a support to the glaciers inland. When the ice shelves break off, it is possible that the glaciers might accelerate towards the ocean. If the ice shelf completely breaks off at the crack, then Larsen C, the ice shelf in which the crack occupies will be the smallest it has ever been. If the crack reaches past the line called the shelfs compressive arch that is critical for structural support, then the whole entire northernmost part of the shelf could break off which would greatly change the shape of the Antarctic peninsula. Scientists are concerned that if Larson C gets thinner and this crack breaks it off, then the stability of the whole ice shelf will be threatened and a rapid retreat could be triggered.
When the collapse of Larsen A (1995) and Larsen B (2002) occurred, the sea levels didn’t rise significantly because they were already floating above water and the glaciers behind them didn’t contain large amounts of ice. However, if Larsen C were to collapse, initially it wouldn’t attribute to a large rise in sea level but it might start a domino effect and other glaciers melting behind ice shelves could contribute to larger rises in the ocean. Scientists are worried that if Larsen C is collapsing now, then other major ice shelves may be following close behind. Sea level rising causes multiple issues including coastal devastation. As seawater nears the coastline and travels further inland, it can cause destructive erosion, and soil contamination among many other things. When large storms such as tsunamis hit the coasts, the damage will become greater and more areas will become prone to flooding. Scientist predict that the warming of the planet will continue and is likely to continue at an accelerated rate, also contributing to the rise in the oceans. As a society, we must reduce the number one cause of global warming which is burning fossil fuels because they increase the emission of CO2 that traps heat instead of letting it leave the earth which ultimately will slowly destroy our planet.
This article was well written, and provided many visuals to help the reader better understand the topic. If I were to change the article, I would possibly make it slightly longer with more quotes from scientists and It would have been nice if they talked more about what caused the crack and what we can do to stop it. Also, I would have liked a real picture of the crack instead of solely animations so that I could have gotten an idea on what the ice shelf looks like. One last thing that could have helped me better understand how fast this crack is advancing would be a timeline of from when the crack started until when it is predicted to break off. Overall, the article was on a very interesting topic and made me want to research more into the effects global warming has on glaciers and I feel it provided a good base of information on glaciers and ice shelves.
This week my classmate, Marina Alfano did a current event on a crack that expanded for 17 miles in the antarctic. The first thing that I thought was very interesting, was how rapidly the crack expanded. It’s reported that the crack is expanding as much as five football fields a day! The second thing that really surprised me was that if it breaks off, it's going to be one of the biggest icebergs in history. It reaches all the way to the bottom of the ice shelf, a total of ⅓ of a mile deep with a maximum width of two miles. Its reported to break off in a couple of months. Finally, the last thing that caught my interest was that if this breaks off, it could cause a chain reaction of glaciers breaking off which can cause rising sea levels.
ReplyDeleteSomething I thought that the author could've done better in this, was to give some background information about this region, and how often glaciers fall. I also thought they could've explained it a bit better, although the pictures included did help.
This article definitely shows the instability in the arctic region. I always knew this was a major issue in the world today, but never really understood it. Going forward I will definitely keep my eye on articles about major events going on in the arctic.
Patel, Jugal K. "A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months." NYtimes.com. The New York Times, 7 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/07/science/earth/antarctic-crack.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
Patel, Jugal K. "A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months." NYtimes.com. The New York Times, 7 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/07/science/earth/antarctic-crack.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
My classmate Marina Alfano did a review on the article,”A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months.” Something that I enjoyed about the article review was that she included the rate of expansion of the crack, which is 5 football fields per day. Another thing I enjoyed about the review was how she included how the iceberg breaking off would affect the surroundings and the world. She also explained some previous incidents of icebergs breaking off in previous years.
Some things that I felt that Marina could have done better was how she didn’t include the locations of the icebergs that have broken off, and no information on other icebergs that haven’t broken off but might. Other references to the article would have also been helpful.
Something that surprised me was the rate of the crack’s expansion. The rate is surprisingly high and this iceberg affects us on a global scale.
Patel, Jugal K. "A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months." NYtimes.com. The New York Times, 7 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/07/science/earth/antarctic-crack.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
My classmate Marina Alfano summarized and critiqued an article titled “A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months” by Jugal K. Patel. The article talked about how rapidly an ice shelf in Antarctica is cracking, along with its dimensions and detrimental effects. For instance it is cracking at a rate of 5 football field per day, is so far 100 miles in length and only 20 miles off from breaking off from the continent completely. Marina did a good job summarizing the long term and short term impact of the ice shield breaking off from Antarctica will have on the world. Additionally, the comparison to previously collapsed glaciers were helpful since they permitted the reader to see how each iceberg is different and stress the importance of Larsen C, if it were to break off. Furthermore, it served as reassurance that large chunks of ice have broken off from Antarctica in the past and that it is a normal occurrence. Lastly, the order in which she summarized was well done since she first talked about the current ice shelf that is being formed followed by the relevance of it and finally talked about icebergs as a whole along with why in recent years there has been a greater increase of them.
Marina could improved upon her review but giving the reader a better idea as to where exactly Larsen C is roughly located since I am intrigued after reading that it could alter the shape of Antarctica. Additionally, she could have read over the article since there are one or two instance of unnecessary capitalization or lack of needed commas.
This article was very interesting to me since it showed the extent of global warming, especially considering the crack’s rapid growing rate and how our planet is truly in danger.
Caroline Brashear
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Biology
3/6/17
Current Event 4 Comment
Patel, Jugal K. "A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months." NYtimes.com. The New York Times, 7 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/07/science/earth/antarctic-crack.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
Marina Alfano’s review of an article about a crack in the Antarctic Shelf was very well-done and provided an interesting learning experience for the reader. One aspect of her review that made her summary of the article especially strong was her inclusion of important facts from the article that supported the information she was stating. For example, she first introduced the main idea: a crack in one of Antarctica's largest ice shelves is quickly growing. To support her claim, she included that “the crack reaches around 100 miles in length and has 20 miles left until it breaks off and becomes one of the largest recorded icebergs in history,” (Current Event, Alfano). In adding this information, Marina was able to stress the importance of the main idea. Another aspect of her review that was good was in her second paragraph, when she talked about the concerns of scientists regarding the issue. She talked about how scientists are worried that if the ice shelf is collapsing, then other major ice shelves may do the same in the near future. Again, including this information stressed the importance of the issue being discussed, and added a significant perspective for the reader. Lastly, I liked how Marina went into a lot of detail about what she would do to improve the article in her last paragraph. One thing she suggested was that the author could have included a timeline of when the crack started until when it is predicted to break off. I thought this was a really good idea, because it would help the reader to visualize the timeframe. Sometimes when people think about improving articles, they only consider the writing, so the fact that Marina also took visuals into consideration shows that she put a lot of thought into her ideas.
Although Marina’s review had many great aspects, there are a few areas that she could improve on. It would be even better if Marina talked more specifically about the locations of the ice shelves. By doing this, her information would have more depth and importance to the reader. Also, she mentioned what might happen if the ice shelf completely cracked, but she could have discussed the danger of this event occurring and what direct effects it might have to capitalize the issue.
Overall, I was able to gain new knowledge from Marina’s review. What surprised me was how rapidly the crack in the ice shelf is expanding, and how it could break off into an iceberg in the near future. Additionally, it was all the more significant that this is referencing Antarctica's fourth-largest ice shelf. In reading this, I gained a new perspective of how issues like this that affect us on a global scale are more likely to occur than we may think.
Zip Malley
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Bio H / Current Event Review #3
17 February 2017
Patel, Jugal K. "A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months." The
New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Feb. 2017. Web.
.
This review of Jugal Patel’s New York Times article titled, “A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months” by classmate Marina Alfano, was thoroughly explained and examined. This New York Times article was about a crack in the Antarctic ice shelf that grew 17 miles in the last two months. The crack was growing at a rate of five football fields a day! In her review, Marina did a an amazing job summarizing the article, talking about the long term and short term effects of this crack in the Antarctic ice shelf. Marina also mentioned other parts of the ice shelf that previously cracked and broke off. Finally, Marina critiqued the article a ton. She mentioned quite a lot as to what she thought the author should have talked about in the article.
There were a couple of places for improvement in Marina’s review, however. I felt that Marina should have given the locations of the cracks in the Antarctic ice shelf. This way, the reader would feel more attached to the data and the effects of this global warming possible disaster. I also felt that Marina should have mentioned if the ice shelf would have completely cracked. Finally, Marina should have given quotes from the article to backup her claims.
What struck me while reading this was the rate at which the ice shelf was cracking; five football fields in one day!