Headline, February 05 2022/ CLIMATE : ''' '' FRESH WATER FROWN '' '''

CLIMATE : ''' '' FRESH

 WATER FROWN '' '''

WHITE GOLD - SAPPHIRES - DIAMONDS - WHITE MOTHER - OF-PEARL : Be it one or all - the world and its leaders just cannot look away from the effects of climate change.

In the future ahead - Mankind's risk of survival will take on a different dimension as climate change translates into incomprehensible forms and effects.

HAZARDS OF A GIANT ICEBERG : AN INFLUX OF FRESH WATER.

PERHAPS THE WORLD REMEMBERS ICEBERG A68a which enjoyed a few minutes of fame when it broke off an ice shelf on Antarctic Peninsula. Hardly, your everyday iceberg, it was one of the biggest ever seen, more than 100 miles long and 30 miles wide.

The iceberg drifted slowly through the Weddell Sea for a few years, before picking up steam as it entered as it entered the Southern Ocean.When last we heard from it, in 2020, it was bearing down on the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic, a bit shrunken and battered from a journey of more than 1,000 miles.

A68a is no more. Last year some 100 miles, or 160 kilometer, from South Georgia, it finally did what all icebergs eventually do : thinned so much that it broke up into small pieces that eventually drifted off to nothingness.

In its prime, A68a was nearly 800 feet thick - 240 meters- though all but 120 feet of that was hidden below the waterline.

Ecologists and others have feared that during its journey the iceberg might become grounded near South Georgia.That could have kept the millions of penguins and seals that live and breed there from reaching their feeding areas in the ocean.

That didn't happen. New research shows that A68a most likely only struck a feature on the seafloor briefly, then kept going until it broke up.

But this also revealed another potential threat from the iceberg to ecosystems around South Georgia. As it traveled through the relatively warm waters of the Southern Ocean into the South Atlantic, it melted from below, eventually releasing a huge quantity of fresh water into the sea near the island. 

The influx of so much fresh water could affect plankton and other organisms in the marine food chain.

The scientists, led by Anne-Braakmann-Folgmann, a doctoral student at the Center for Polar Observation and Modeling at the University of Leeds in Britain, used satellite imagery to monitor the shape and the location of the iceberg over the course of its journey.

A68a left its mark. The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment, estimated that melting in the vicinity of South Georgia resulted in the release of about 150 billion tons of fresh water.

That's enough to fill an Olympic size swimming pool 61 million times over, the researchers said, although because the ice was already floating, its melting did not contribute to sea-level rise.

Not only is the water fresh, not salty but it also contains Large amount of iron and other nutrients, Ms. Braakmann-Folgmann is helping another group of researchers, from the British Antarctic Survey, who are trying to determine the environmental effects of the iceberg and the meltwater.

When the iceberg was near South Georgia, scientists with the survey were able to deploy autonomous underwater gliders to take water samples. On the island, they used tracking devices on some gentoo penguins and fur seals, to see whether the presence of the iceberg affected their foraging behavior.

Geraint Tarling, a biological oceanographer with the survey, said the preliminary findings from the tracking data showed that the penguins and seals did not alter foraging routes, as they might have, had the iceberg blocked their way or affected their prey.

''At least in the areas of the colonies that we saw, the impact from the iceberg itself are not as devastating as we first feared,'' Dr. Tarling said.

But there is still much data to analyze. Dr. Tarling suggested, especially the water samples. A large influx of fresh water on the surface could affect the growth and phytoplankton, at the lower end of the food chain, or it could alter the mix of phytoplankton species available, he said.

Complicating the analysis is that 2020 also happened to be bad year for krill, the small crustaceans that are just above phytoplankton in the food chain.

Climate change could lead to more grounding episodes.Warming is causing parts of the huge Antarctic ice sheets to flow faster toward the ocean, leading to more calving of icebergs that then travel north.

''What we are looking at is a lot more movement of icebergs that could actually gouge these areas of the sea floor,'' Dr. Tarling said.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Climate Change and Dangerous Signs and Happenings, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Henry Fountain.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Mankind, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - the exclusive ownership of every student in the world and Twitter - E-!WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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