CRUMBLING CANADIAN ICE SHELF SIGNALS ARCTIC CLIMATE IN DISTRESS
HIGH SUMMER TEMPERATURES REPORTEDLY CONTRIBUTED TO REDUCTION IN ICE MASS, WEAKENING OF ANCIENT FORMATION
17 January 2007 :: Lainey Johr

Less than 500 miles from Canada’s north pole, ice shelves continue to show increasing signs of distress.  A 41 square mile ice shelf, the largest to fracture in almost 30 years, broke free without notice last summer from the coast of Ellesmere Island.

Recently discovered by Laurie Weir of the Canadian Ice Service via satellite, the sheer size of the new ice island has alarmed the scientific community and carries potentially serious consequences for westward shipping routes.

Luke Copland, who studies glaciers and ice masses at the University of Ottawa, says effects of global warming and turbulent waters are partly to blame for the breaking Ayles Ice Shelf that cast an ice floe of 25 square miles in its wake.

The threat posed by the floating ice shelf increases this spring, when the waters warm and it can break free from its frozen position, already 31 miles westward of its origin.  The speed and distance that the ice shelf traveled before freezing into sea ice has astonished scientists.

Popular shipping routes for oil and gas are nearby, and floating ice boulders and the ice shelf itself could wreak havoc on these ships, threatening an environmental disaster should cargo such as oil spill into the ocean. 

The loss of the ice shelf, one of only six remaining in the Canadian Arctic, also means the loss of ancient ice, dating back to almost 3,000 years. 

These ice sheets are land-locked, jutting outward off the island coast, floating above the water.  They are often older and much thicker than Antarctic ice shelves.  The Ayles Ice Shelf is 100 ft thick, registering on earthquake monitors 155 miles away when it broke off.

When discovered in 1906, the icy coast off of Ellesmere Island was covered with ice shelves.  Now they are 10% of their original size. 

Warwick Vincent of Laval University traveled to the broken ice shelf and claimed that ‘…we are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead.’  Speaking about climate change, Vincent warns with alarm of dramatic shifts in our climate.

The Arctic region warming over recent years has been linked to an increase in temperatures, shrinking the ice dramatically.   Scientists note that it is too early to blame human-induced global warming as the lone culprit.

• Discovery News: "Arctic Ice Shelf Breaks Free"
• Reuters: "Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north"
• Pioneer Times Journal: "Ice mass snaps free from Canada's Arctic"
• San Francisco Chronicle: "Floating Arctic ice shelf drifts along Canada's northern shore; 2005's high summer temperatures caused slab to break off, scientists say"
• Sci-Tech Today.com: "Giant Canadian Ice Shelf Breaks Free"

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