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Giant chunk breaks off Canadian ice shelf
Topic Started: Aug 3 2008, 11:55 PM (293 Views)
Mystical
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Giant chunks break off Canadian ice shelf
Cracks had been earlier found on Ward Hunt; 'more could go' this summer

updated 5:54 p.m. ET, Tues., July. 29, 2008
OTTAWA - 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.

In a development consistent with climate change theories, the enormous icy plain broke free sometime last week and began slowly drifting into the Arctic Ocean. The piece had been a part of the shelf for 3,000 years.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades.

The ice broke away from the shelf on Ward Hunt Island, a 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 earlier identified deep cracks in the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, which measures around 155 square miles. The shelf is one of five along Ellesmere Island in the northern Arctic.

"Because the breakoff occurred between two large parallel cracks they're thinking more could go this summer before the freeze sets in," said Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service. "More could be a piece as large as the Ayles Ice Shelf."

Ellesmere Island was once home to a single enormous ice shelf totaling around 3,500 square miles. All that is left of that shelf today are five much smaller shelves that together cover just under 400 square miles.

Melting ice shelves don't raise sea levels because they are already in the water, but their demise can speed up retreating glaciers, which do raise sea levels.

Sea ice, glaciers also shrinking
"The breakoff is consistent with other changes we've seen in the area, such as the reduction in the amount of sea ice, the retreat of the glaciers and the breakup of other ice shelves," Wohlleben said.

She said a likely reason for the shelf breaking away was a strong wind from the south.

Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec, said much of the remaining Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is now in a vulnerable state.

"It underscores the fact that each year we're now crossing new thresholds in environmental change in the High Arctic, and of course our concern in the longer term is that these may signal the onset of serious change at all latitudes, much further to the south, for example," he told Reuters.

Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, said he was concerned by the rapidity of changes in the High Arctic over the last few years.

"It's a bit of a wake-up call for those people who aren't yet affected by climate change that there are places on Earth that are, and the same could be true for them (these people) if you fast-forward a decade or two or three," he said.

'No longer ... in balance'
Mueller initially estimated that 1.5 square miles of ice had broken off the shelf but increased that figure to eight square miles after studying the data more closely.


Sam Soja / AP
The large section of ice at right had been part of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf but was seen Sunday drifting away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Whatever has kept this ice shelf in balance for 3,000 years is no longer keeping it in balance," he told Reuters, saying he too would not be surprised to see more ice breaking away from the Ward Hunt shelf this year.

Wohlleben said the ice shelves, which contained unique ecosystems that had yet to be studied, would not be replaced because they took so long to form.

"Once they've broken off they're gone," she said.

Full story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25917328/
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LarryOldtimer
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The Man!!!
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Climate change in a pigs eye. Ice shelves are caused by glaciers. As the glacier extends, it pushes an ice shelf out over the ocean or sea. This ice shelf is buoyed up by the water. Sooner or later, it has to break. Nothing unusual at all about this. Just doesn't happen all that often.

People with little knowledge are easily fooled.
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Mystical
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Yep that is true Larry. When something like this happens people tend to panic and right a way say It's Global warming etc,.. when in fact it's just a natural process that occurs.
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Isis
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The Goddess of Darkness & Desire

I happen to agree with Larry, They are trying to scare people with all the global warming stuff... "Kingreading"
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Isis, The Goddess of Desire & Darkness. In The Darkness, We Find The Light.

This is a Drama Free Zone..!
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Deleted User
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We of little time spent on this rock,Its all part of the Big picture,That is of Mans survival here We are but a spect in the universial keeping of momumential events that have and will happen as out clock races on . We only know of the things that have past ,now to try and evolve long enough to see wonderious things that are to come.Our Planet has and will be here long after we are all dust,Returned back into Cosmic particles. Global warmeing is all part of a cyclic event The Sun even goes through such changes over millennium`s Get with it people of earth Enjoy every moment like its your very last.IMO
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