Pine Island Bay

Pine Island Bay (coord|74|50|S|102|40|W|) is a bay about 40 miles (65 km) long and 30 miles (50 km) wide, into which flows the ice of the Pine Island Glacier at the southeast extremity of the Amundsen Sea. It was delineated from aerial photographs taken by USN Operation Highjump in December 1946, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for the USS "Pine Island", seaplane tender and flagship of the eastern task group of USN Operation Highjump which explored this area. Some scientists have proposed that this region may be a "weak underbelly" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers are two of Antarctica's largest five. Scientists have found that the flow of these glaciers has accelerated in recent years, and suggested that if they were to melt, global sea levels would rise by 1-2 yards (0.9-1.9 m), destabilizing the entire West Antarctic ice sheet and perhaps sections of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. ["With Speed and Violence: Why scientists fear tipping points in climate change", Fred Pearce, Beacon Press Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8070-8576-9]

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