On Saturday morning, a chunk of ice estimated to weigh more than 200 pounds fell in an Oakland, California park, leaving a hole 24 inches wide and 18 inches deep. Nobody knows where it came from. Apparently, it was clean and clear, making it unlikely to be waste from an airplane bathroom. The odd thing is that ice chunks like this one have been falling with increasing frequency around the world. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater climatologist David Travis suggests that the ice could have dropped from the underside of an airplane hull. Travis's colleague, Madrid scientist Jesus Martinez-Frias, posits a scarier theory. From Inside Bay Area:
Martinez-Frias speculates it is a natural phenomenon caused by global warming. According to his studies, every time such an incident occurs, it is precipitated by an unusual atmosphere in which higher altitudes are turbulent and cold. The cold helps create the ice. The turbulence helps keep it together in the sky.
As global warming continues to heat the earth, his theory goes, upper atmospheric temperatures become cooler, opening more opportunities for the ice to form.
