Arctic ice shelf barely hanging together

Calcutta News.Net
Saturday 24th May, 2008

Evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has shocked research scientists on a Canadian military expedition.

Scientists, in the group with expedition forces, have discovered major new fractures on the giant ice shelves in Canada's far north.

As an indicator of serious climate change, a network of cracks stretches for more than 16 kilometres on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf.

Scientists say they were astonished to see the cracks which are only just holding together like parts of a “jigsaw”.

They have agreed the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic; from the retreat of the glaciers, to the melting of the sea ice.

With ice shelves breaking apart, they drift offshore into the ocean as ice islands, transforming the very geography of the coastline.

After the record Arctic melting last year, the scientists are now on what happens to the sea ice this summer.

Although its maximum extent last winter was slightly greater than the year before, it was still below the long-term average.

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