Now would be good (Image: AARI)

It takes the phrase “on thin ice” to a whole new level. Russia is evacuating a research station on an ice floe in the Arctic because the ice is breaking up beneath its feet. It’s another indicator of the rapidity with which the Arctic sea ice is shrinking.

On 24 May, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment announced that it was evacuating the drifting station North Pole-40 because the ice floe it was resting on had split. The station was set up in October 2012 and was supposed to stay in place until September this year.

Up until the 1980s, ice-floe stations lasted two to three years, but since 2003 most new stations have only lasted a year.

“Russian high-latitude ocean measurements are fundamental to our knowledge of the Arctic Ocean,” says Sheldon Bacon of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK. Arctic researchers have been struggling to adjust to the retreating sea ice for several years, he says. Last year saw a record minimum for Arctic sea ice.