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Close Window 19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada Wednesday, September 3, 2008 TORONTO - 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.
"Reduced sea ice conditions and unusually high air temperatures have facilitated the ice shelf losses this summer," said Luke Copland, director of the Laboratory for Cryospheric Research at the University of Ottawa. "And extensive new cracks across remaining parts of the largest remaining ice shelf, the Ward Hunt, mean that it will continue to disintegrate in the coming years."
Formed by accumulating snow and freezing meltwater, ice shelves are large platforms of thick, ancient sea ice that float on the ocean's surface but are connected to land.
Ellesmere Island was once entirely ringed by a single enormous ice shelf that broke up in the early 1900s. All that is left today are the four much smaller shelves that together cover little more than 299 square miles.
Martin Jeffries of the U.S. National Science Foundation and University of Alaska Fairbanks said in a statement Tuesday that the summer's ice shelf loss is equivalent to over three times the area of Manhattan, totaling 82 square miles - losses that have reduced Arctic Ocean ice cover to its second-biggest retreat since satellite measurements began 30 years ago.
"These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present," said Muller.
During the last century, when ice shelves would break off, thick sea ice would eventually reform in their place.
"But today, warmer temperatures and a changing climate means there's no hope for regrowth. A scary scenario," said Muller.
The loss of these ice shelves means that rare ecosystems that depend on them are on the brink of extinction, said Warwick Vincent, director of Laval University's Centre for Northern Studies and a researcher in the program ArcticNet.
"The Markham Ice Shelf had half the biomass for the entire Canadian Arctic Ice Shelf ecosystem as a habitat for cold, tolerant microbial life; algae that sit on top of the ice shelf and photosynthesis like plants would. Now that it's disappeared, we're looking at ecosystems on the verge of distinction,' said Muller.
Along with decimating ecosystems, drifting ice shelves and warmer temperatures that will cause further melting ice pose a hazard to populated shipping routes in the Arctic region - a phenomenon that Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to welcome.
Harper announced last week that he plans to expand exploration of the region's known oil and mineral deposits, a possibility that has become more evident as a result of melting sea ice. It is the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that scientists say is the chief cause of manmade warming and melting ice.
Harper also said Canada would toughen reporting requirements for ships entering its waters in the Far North, where some of those territorial claims are disputed by the United States and other countries.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
Posts: 6008 | From: phoenix az | Registered: Mar 2005
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PM, you have the mind of a preteen, the ego of a 2 year old, and your respect for others is virtually nil. Can't evaluate your intellect.....none there.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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I believe in protecting the environment and personal responsibility to do your part. However, when Al Gore is making insane amounts of money to pump the same thing over and over I kind of wonder......
No doubt things are happening on our earth that are alarming, but his idea of buying carbon credits is just wrong. They really are wackos in certain areas you cant deny that.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:No doubt things are happening on our earth that are alarming
Like what? Is there anything happening that isn't completely normal? The climate always has and always will change. I've seen documentaries on TV that claim that the little ice age started in as little as a 10 year period. Man didn't cause that. Man also didn't cause the little ice age to end. Temperatures have been warmer than they are now and temperatures have been colder than they are now.
quote:However, when Al Gore is making insane amounts of money to pump the same thing over and over I kind of wonder......
He doesn't have any incentive to pump this global warming hoax, does he? I doubt that he needs the money, I'm sure that he was already rich from inventing the internet!
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:No doubt things are happening on our earth that are alarming
Like what? Is there anything happening that isn't completely normal? The climate always has and always will change. I've seen documentaries on TV that claim that the little ice age started in as little as a 10 year period. Man didn't cause that. Man also didn't cause the little ice age to end. Temperatures have been warmer than they are now and temperatures have been colder than they are now.
quote:However, when Al Gore is making insane amounts of money to pump the same thing over and over I kind of wonder......
He doesn't have any incentive to pump this global warming hoax, does he? I doubt that he needs the money, I'm sure that he was already rich from inventing the internet!
So you are saying industrialized humans have had zero impact on the environment?
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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I'm saying that humans are PART OF THE ENVIRONMENT. Industrialization has been of great benefit to humans and our standard of living has never been higher. I'm also saying that the "scientists" don't know what they're talking about. In the 70's, the "scientists" were talking about the coming ice age. Not long ago, they were predicting doom and gloom via global warming. Now, they admit global warming stopped 10 years ago!!!
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: Splendid demonstration, PM...
You've nailed it. Your argument both demonstrates and is:
Ignorance, "Par Excellence".
Thanks bdgee! I couldn't have responded any better to that post of sheer ignorance by PM.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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Back to the name calling Bdgee and Pagan? It's not suprising, that's all you lefties have - personal attacks and insults. When you're not right on anything of substance, there's nothing left but your 3rd grade attacks.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Propertymanager: Back to the name calling Bdgee and Pagan? It's not suprising, that's all you lefties have - personal attacks and insults. When you're not right on anything of substance, there's nothing left but your 3rd grade attacks.
It's just the fact that you are such an imbecile. Nothing political in that statement, just an observation of your limited intellect.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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Time for you lefties to regroup. I suggest you visit some left wing socialist website so that you can copy and paste something of substance. These personal attacks simply prove that you are wrong - AGAIN!
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by bdgee: Splendid demonstration, PM...
You've nailed it. Your argument both demonstrates and is:
Ignorance, "Par Excellence".
Thanks bdgee! I couldn't have responded any better to that post of sheer ignorance by PM.
Oh, I don't know, Pagan. I've often Admired some near poetic gem you have fashioned.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:No doubt things are happening on our earth that are alarming
Like what? Is there anything happening that isn't completely normal? The climate always has and always will change. I've seen documentaries on TV that claim that the little ice age started in as little as a 10 year period. Man didn't cause that. Man also didn't cause the little ice age to end. Temperatures have been warmer than they are now and temperatures have been colder than they are now.
quote:However, when Al Gore is making insane amounts of money to pump the same thing over and over I kind of wonder......
He doesn't have any incentive to pump this global warming hoax, does he? I doubt that he needs the money, I'm sure that he was already rich from inventing the internet!
Well I think that massive deforestation in South America will have an impact on global weather patterns. How couldnt it? I have a relative who works for a university who goes down there to study birds. The photos I see of everything that has been wiped out is just wrong. I am not a drum beating hippie by any means, but I do know that we cant just go around and slash all the wood in South America!
Temps are colder now not because of global warming. I love watching global warming protestors get snowed on. I hear that the sunsports are not that big lately which causes a cooling temp scenario.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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