Giant Canadian ice shelf breaks away Reuters

Published: Tuesday September 2, 2008





Print This Email This OTTAWA (Reuters) - A massive 19-square-mile (55-square-km) ice shelf in Canada's northern Arctic has broken away and is floating in the Arctic Ocean, the latest sign of rapid climate change in the remote region, a team of scientists said on Tuesday.



They said the Markham Ice Shelf -- one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Arctic -- split away from Ellesmere Island in early August. They also said two large chunks totaling 47 square miles had broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it in size by 60 percent.



"These substantial calving events underscore the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario.



"These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present," he said in a e-mail sent late on Tuesday.



He said the total amount of ice lost from the shelves this summer totaled 83 square miles -- more than three times the area of Manhattan.



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.



(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Eric Walsh)







