Massive chunks of ice break away from Arctic shelf

by Rich Bowden - Jul 31 2008, 00:12

Two large chunks of ice measuring a total of 20kms have broken away from a Canadian ice shelf, the largest such breakup in three years, say Canadian officials.

Temperatures have been rising faster in parts of the Arctic in recent times and scientists say this may have contributed to the sudden breakup.

Both chunks came from the ice shelf on Ward Hunt Island, near Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. One of the islands of ice measured four to five square kilometers (1.9 square miles) and the other 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles), according to experts.

"The first broke off sometime around July 22 and the second in the night of July 23 to 24," Luc Desjardins, a senior iceberg forecaster for the Canadian Ice Service, told AFP on Tuesday.

Derek Mueller, a researcher at Trent University in Ontario, told reporters the event added weight to the theory that ice sheets weren't being rebuilt in the current Arctic climate.

"We're in a different climate now," Mueller said. "It's not conducive to regrowing them. It's a one-way process."

He added that the loss of ice in the region was a long-term phenomenon.

"We ascertained that in the 20th century 90 percent of the ice surface area (in the region) has been lost. So, this phenomena has been ongoing on for a long time, but we're now seeing punctuated events," he said. 

Mueller said he wouldn't be surprised if there were further breakups of ice from the shelf during the remainder of the Northern summer.

Around the Web