Community | September 04, 2008 | 14 comments

4,500-year-old ice shelf breaks away

source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/03/arctic.ice.shelf.ap/index.html

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Crazyotto
TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.

Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, told The Associated Press that the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separated in early August and the 19-square-mile shelf is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean.

"The Markham Ice Shelf was a big surprise because it suddenly disappeared. We went under cloud for a bit during our research and when the weather cleared up, all of a sudden there was no more ice shelf. It was a shocking event that underscores the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Muller.

Muller also said that two large sections of ice detached from the Serson Ice Shelf, shrinking that ice feature by 47 square miles -- or 60 percent -- and that the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf has also continued to break up, losing an additional eight square miles.

Muller reported last month that seven square miles of the 170-square-mile and 130-feet-thick Ward Hunt shelf had broken off.

This comes on the heels of unusual cracks in a northern Greenland glacier, rapid melting of a southern Greenland glacier, and a near record loss for Arctic sea ice this summer. And earlier this year a 160-square mile chunk of an Antarctic ice shelf disintegrated.
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14 comments // 4,500-year-old ice shelf breaks away

  • globewatcher
    • 0
      globewatcher  

    • well, in my part of the world we dont have to read shit to know this year is hotter. the sun has been more intense as noticed by people who work outside and get the shit burnt out of them. much unlike past years when you burn once or twice and tan the rest of the summer. only those who dwell in ice caves- or are addicted to republican ideology would even try to deny our world is getting warmer.

    • 3 years ago
  • Inofuilwell
  • nicsansone
    • 0
      nicsansone  

    • Maybe it has to do with Pollution from off shore drilling floating on the surface and preventing ice from forming as well or even at all... ???

    • 3 years ago
  • frimer
    • 0
      frimer  
    • Image

    • Now that you have read the "soap opera" lets look at the actual FACTS shall we?
      Be ready to pick up your jaws from the floor..

      Save the planet...wisely!

    • 3 years ago
  • tommytupa
    • 0
      tommytupa  

    • Its already to late, the damage has been done and we cannot reverse it. No matter, the planet will survive, its the human race that will perish

    • 3 years ago
  • justright
  • frimer
    • 0
      frimer  
    • Image

    • STOP LYING ABOUT FACTS!GLOBAL WARMING??? ICE MELTING? AND I THOUGHT THAT WAS WHAT HAPPEN DURING SUMMER TIME!! READ THE FACTS BELOW..
      http://www.dailytech.com/Arctic+Sees+Massive+Gain+in+Ice+Coverage/article12851.h...

      Increase twice the size of Germany: "colder weather" to blame.

      Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has indicated a dramatic increase in sea ice extent in the Arctic regions. The growth over the past year covers an area of 700,000 square kilometers: an amount twice the size the nation of Germany.

      With the Arctic melting season over for 2008, ice cover will continue to increase until melting begins anew next spring.

      The data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent.

      William Chapman, a researcher with the Arctic Climate Research Center at the University of Illinois, tells DailyTech that this year the Arctic was "definitely colder" than 2007. Chapman also says part of the reason for the large ice loss in 2007 was strong winds from Siberia, which affect both ice formation and drift, forcing ice into warmer waters where it melts.

      Earlier predictions were also wrong because researchers thought thinner ice would melt faster in subsequent years. Instead, according to the NSIDC, the new ice had less snow coverage to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, resulting in a faster rate of ice growth.

      Most concern has focused on the Arctic regions, rather than Antarctica. Recent research has indicated Antarctica is on a long-term cooling trend, for reasons which remain unclear.

      Earlier this year, concerns over global warming led the US to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.

    • 3 years ago
  • marpunk
  • NeoDotCom
  • philvoydanoff
    • 0
      philvoydanoff  

    • We (as wasteful Americans) are changing but I wonder what will have to happen for all of us to make the change to prevent any further destruction to our planet.

    • 3 years ago
  • VynalFrontier
    • 0
      VynalFrontier  

    • These incidents continue to happen yet fail to be addressed by our future presidential cadidates. I feel like people are becoming dumber in this world

    • 3 years ago
  • ximalim
    • 0
      ximalim  

    • I think we need to break away from our 4500 year old ideologies and stop polluting. ZING... not to make this subject seem less serious.

    • 3 years ago
  • kennymotown
  • benjaminV
    • 0
      benjaminV  

    • Goddammit.

      And no one bothers to care. They're too busy whining about the cost of gasoline.

      Sometimes I really do think we humans deserve to parish.

    • 3 years ago
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