Another chunk snaps off Ward Hunt ice shelf

[GliderGuider]

Huge chunk snaps off storied Arctic ice shelf

A four-square-kilometre chunk has broken off Ward Hunt Ice Shelf - the largest remaining ice shelf in the Arctic - threatening the future of the giant frozen mass that northern explorers have used for years as the starting point for their treks.

Scientists say the break, the largest on record since 2005, is the latest indication that climate change is forcing the drastic reshaping of the Arctic coastline, where 9,000 square kilometres of ice have been whittled down to less than 1,000 over the past century, and are only showing signs of decreasing further.

"Once you unleash this process by cracking the ice shelf in multiple spots, of course we're going to see this continuing," said Derek Mueller, a leading expert on the North who discovered the ice shelf's first major crack in 2002.

Dr. Mueller was part of a team monitoring ice along the northern coast of Ellesmere Island last April that discovered deep new cracks - 18 kilometres long and 40 metres wide - on the edge of Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, a 350-square-kilometre mass of ice that joins tiny Ward Hunt Island to the bigger Ellesmere. The cracks indicated a split was likely coming.

[hatrack]

1. Gosh, it's almost as if things were moving . . .

Faster Than Expected!!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Who could have predicted such a thing?!

[XemaSab]

6. I always predict these things

:popcorn:

[JohnWxy]

7. I'm getting a sinking feeling.

[XemaSab]

8. Perhaps it's not you sinking

but the water rising around you? :P

[hogwyld]

3. Ahhh, so those crafty Canadians

are out to beat the collapsing Larson Ice shelf! The only losers will be the planet...

[cedric]

5. Nah, the planet will be ok

it's humanity which will suffer

[Judi Lynn]

4. Reuters: Giant chunks break off Canadian ice shelf

Giant chunks break off Canadian ice shelf
Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:03pm EDT

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said on Tuesday.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming.

The ice broke away from the shelf on Ward Hunt Island, an small island just off giant Ellesmere Island in one of the northernmost parts of Canada.

It was the largest fracture of its kind since the nearby Ayles ice shelf -- which measured 25 square miles -- broke away in 2005.

Scientists had already identified deep cracks in the Ward Hunt shelf, which measures around 155 square miles. The shelf is one of five along Ellesmere Island in the northern Arctic.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2931485920080729?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews

[yy4me]

9. Geeze, this keeps up and I'll have beach front property. What a

mess we've made of the world. Can we dump any of this on **** and company? I know climate change takes eons but this seems to be accelerating at a speed that seems at odds with estimates.