Giant ice shelf snaps A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said. The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometres south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north. Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake. Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, travelled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw. "This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are loosing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead," Vincent said today. In 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice, he said. The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometres away picked up tremors from it. The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometres in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada's Arctic. Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor. "It is consistent with climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 per cent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906. "We aren't able to connect all of the dots ... but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."
Thats how Canada was discovered...by the Norsemen during the Medieval Warm period, when they were able to ply their ships amid the billowing waves of the north atlantic seas.
The ice is reportedly 3,000 years old. Should be free of pollutants, H-3, etc. Once it drifts south, it might pose a shipping hazard. Perhaps it could be towed to a port, and used as a source of fresh water (bottled). Might make a good income for some enterprising individuals.
'cause the ice age ain't ended! That ice started flowing down-hill and hit the ocean perhaps 2,000 years ago, taking another 1,000 years to extend outwards several miles. Further upstream is more ice that will move in to replace the ice that broke off. It routinely breaks off every few centuries/millenia, allowing for more ice to move down and replace it. During the days of Eric the Red and his son, Leif, those waters were warmer and such ice-shelves were much smaller. If one were to do a thorough study of the block that broke off, it would likely have a much older edge, and a much younger edge (the one closest to shore), giving varying dates. The 3,000 year date was likely an average.
The "relatively" young 3,000 year old ice should have been some of the first to melt through the last three millenia of supposed melting, what is left now should be roughly "15,000" year old ice, from not near the end of the Ice Age, when the youngest ice would be the first to melt off, and the article says nothing about "average age."
I wonder what caused global warming during the era of the norsemen? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Isn't known with any certainty yet...certainly wasnt SUVs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period
At the very least, given that the glaciers that are being melted/have melted are thousands of years old tends to suggest a precedent The breakup was so powerful, earthquake monitors 250 kilometres away picked up the tremors as the 3,000- to 4,500-year-old shelf tore away from its fjord on Ellesmere. montrealgazette
Notice the shelf was around 4,000 years old, the Ice Age ended around 1500 B.C., when the sea level rose to submerge many megalithic structures worldwide.
And also, the Guiness book of records says that the 6 warmest years on record for the Northern hemisphere were during the 1990's. Coincidence?
