TIME FOR BOOTIES:
Alaskan Swell Destroys Antarctic Iceberg

“Now from the average California surfer’s perspective, South Pacific storm energy radiating north is no big deal, and is the prime source for our summer surf. But the reverse process, North Pacific energy traveling south, had not been well documented,” explains Sponsler. “From a scientific perspective, it ain’t real till it’s written down, analyzed, and probed to death by a dearth of knowledgeable people.” And that intense scrutiny is exactly what’s going on right now.

Dr. Thomas Crowley, a Professor of Earth Systems Science at Duke University, hopped right in on the scientific debate about the Antarctic collision. “In terms of theory, nothing is very unusual about this…it’s not some crazy story of a rogue storm, and it’s definitely feasible. My question is this: considering that there is a lot of wave energy expended in the southern ocean already, probably the worst weather in the world, why do we need a far-field effect from Alaska to play a role in Antarctica?” In other words why the heck would a storm so far away have an effect on the iceburg when so many local factors already exist?

Crowley refers to potential answers discussed at length in the papers produced by the team of scientists in Antarctica. “These distal waves could be so damaging because the period of the wave is different, so it could be some resonant effect. Also, the waves come during the melting season in Antarctica, when the ice is most vulnerable.” Both hypotheses offer feasible explanations, and ones that have interesting implications about the consequences of large swells. We all know the power differential between a long period ground swell and a short period windswell, and it appears as though the same juice that stokes surfers out at a variety of North Shore’s, continues on to wreak a different type of havoc.

Could the iceberg’s crumbling be a byproduct of global warming? Crowley says, “Maybe. Global warming increases the melting of glaciers, but if they’re melting anyway, they’re going to be more sensitive to vibrations of this sort. Interestingly, global warming is predicted to produce fewer storms in the future, but the ones it does produce will be more intense. So we’ll see where that takes us.”

While a lot of questions still remain unanswered, the entire phenomenon is one that resonates uniquely with the surfing community because of its intimate ties with swell forecasting. Sponsler agrees,