Global Warming on a Roll at the Poles: Increased Melting, Cracking & Splitting

A recent study has just found that the West Antarctic ice shelves are fracturing at an ever alarming rate. It has apparently lost hold of the rocky walls that slow their flow out to sea. Bottom line is that our global warming is depleting the South Pole's ice cap faster than it can be replenished.

Traditionally, as the ice moves out into the sea, it bunches up and creates more or less a bottleneck which impedes the ice's flow. But the observed increase in fracturing leads to an increase in calving, which in turn leads to an increase in icebergs. Such icebergs leads to a decrease in the ice that sits on the South Pole.

You can see a study which was undertaken by The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics here. It talks about this phenomenon in great detail. As well they also talk about the amount of warming we have had here in the Northern Hemisphere (Canada) and the Earth's cryosphere (the parts of the globe where water is frozen). What can be done about this phenomenon-- sadly I don't believe there is anything we can do at this late date.