Scientists Find New Cracks In Remains Of Arctic's Largest Ice Shelf - Globe & Mail

[hatrack]

WARD HUNT ISLAND, Nunavut — New cracks in the largest remaining Arctic ice shelf suggest another polar landmark seems destined to break up and disappear. Scientists discovered the extensive new cracks in the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf earlier this year and a patrol of Canadian Rangers got an up-close look at them last week.

“The map of Canada has changed,” said Derek Mueller of Trent University, who was amazed to find how quickly the shelf has deteriorated since he discovered the first crack in 2002. “These changes are happening in concert with other indicators of climate change.” Mr. Mueller and his fellow researchers were expected to release their findings on Saturday. But a patrol of Canadian Rangers travelling west last week from CFB Alert at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island saw the cracks first-hand.

“We're looking at the possible demise of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf,” said Doug Stern, a Ranger and Parks Canada employee, who was on the patrol and has been helping Mueller with his research.

Formed by accumulating snow and freezing meltwater, ice shelves are large platforms of thick, ancient sea ice that float on the ocean's surface. Ellesmere Island was once ringed by one, but that enormous shelf broke up in the early 1900s. At 443 square kilometres in size, the Ward Hunt shelf is the largest of those remnants — even bigger than the Antarctic shelf that collapsed late last month, and seven times the size of the Ayles Ice Shelf chunk that broke off in 2005 from

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080411.wiceshelf0411/BNStory/Science/home

[XemaSab]

1. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!

I was expecting teh ice to melt from Svalbard and the Bering Sea up and over...

Last summer the area north of Nunavut was about the only area that still had strong, stable ice left.

This might be the first time that something has happened faster than *I* expected! :o

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Uh huh....

As far back as the 1960s, poles were sunk 2.5 metres deep into the ice. Annual measurements of how much those poles protrude from the surface indicate whether the ice is thickening or thinning.

This year, several poles couldn't even be found by the Rangers, suggesting the ice had completely melted out from under them.

2.5 meters is higher than most ceilings. And that much ice has just melted. Gone.

Holy fuck.