Stan checking out the iceberg in Bay BullsEvery year we are gifted with icebergs along the coast of Newfoundland. Where do they come from? They're broken-off pieces of the Greenland icecap that drift south on the Labrador current.
As snow builds up it compresses and transforms into ice. There is a limit to the thickness the ice sheet can reach and at that point the ice becomes plastic and begins to flow. The rate of flow to the sea is impacted by water that acts as a lubricant. The warming climate means more melting ice, more lubrication and glaciers galloping to the sea. As a result we can expect to see increasing numbers of icebergs along our shores.
We'll see more icebergs, that is, until the icecap is completely gone. When that will happen is anyone's guess but sometime down the road, people will watch the movie "Titanic" and wonder what the big piece of ice was doing in the middle of the ocean. And, they will know we failed, now, in our time to act on global warming.
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