Comments on: A tsunami's icy reach

By: icemith

icemith — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:30:56 +0000

Now that those icebergs are free, could somebody please arrange to have them towed to all the hotter spots on our world, for use in icy drinks?

I suggest that that action would be helping against “Global Warming”, as it would prevent having to cool water to make ice, for our drinks, provide cooling for our homes and workplaces, and also provide water for areas that are deprived due to drought etc. All of those activities rely on having to generate electricity, by whatever means, to run refrigeration plants, cooling systems and pumps to distribute the “coolth”!

(In a thousand years time we will really miss the “coolth”, and they may as well have a word to describe it, as it could be quite rare.)

Now for the logicians out there, can we really achieve this towing idea?

Ivan.

By: marc

marc — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:47:44 +0000

click to dephilinate

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:58:19 +0000

Since we’re quibbling over how much a ton of water weighs, I’ll pick my own nit:
“This image, but the way, is not an optical photo.”
Pretty sure you meant to say “by the way”.

But wait, hadn’t you heard that the earthquake and tsunami was all just a carefully orchestrated “false flage nuclear attack”?!? No, wait, it was HAARP!!! Or, actually it was…

No, I’m pretty sure it was an earthquake.

By: Davy Jones

Davy Jones — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:30:34 +0000

I’m surprised Phil didn’t blame this on global warming! And shriek about “deniers”.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 23:45:43 +0000

Jake R (4) said:

I hate to be pedantic,

Hah! You should revel in it. I do!

but I’m an SI fan. A cubic meter of seawater weighs about 1.025 tonne, or about 1.1275 tons.

Then you should be aware that there are three kinds of “ton”, not just two as you seem to imply.

The “metric” tonne is 1000 kg or 2200 lb.
The Imperial ton (known in the US as the “long ton”) is 20 cwt or 2240 lb.
The “short” ton is 2000 lb, and, AFAICT is used only in the US.

So, it seems to me as if, when you say “ton” you mean “US ton” or “short ton”. Maybe Phil was referring to Imperial tons (in the which case, he would have been pretty close)?

Also, the mass of a cubic metre of sea water varies with temperature and salinity – it is not always about 1025 kg.

That is to say that a cubic meter of moving seawater has about 13% _more_ kinetic energy than a ton of seawater has and consequently about 13% more damage potential.

Yes, if you guessed the correct usage of “ton”.

By: Jim Starluck

Jim Starluck — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:47:14 +0000

Man, now I’m imagining what it would be like to be down there, standing on that iceberg when the wave hit; the ice beneath your feet flexing a little and then shuddering as it broke free, cracks racing along the ice where it splits from the shelf.

By: JakeR

JakeR — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:13:30 +0000

Um, Phil,

I hate to be pedantic, but I’m an SI fan. A cubic meter of seawater weighs about 1.025 tonne, or about 1.1275 tons. That is to say that a cubic meter of moving seawater has about 13% _more_ kinetic energy than a ton of seawater has and consequently about 13% more damage potential.

By: Japan 2011 tsunami breaks Antarctic ice shelf « skepgineering

Japan 2011 tsunami breaks Antarctic ice shelf « skepgineering — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:34:02 +0000

[...] via Bad Astronomy: [...]

By: lqd

lqd — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:40:58 +0000

I just saw Envisat the other night.

By: VinceRN

VinceRN — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:27:08 +0000

Ain’t nature just freakin’ amazing?