Global Warming Destroys Canada¡¯s Last Fully Intact Arctic Ice Shelf
The Milne Ice Shelf is located at the edge of Ellesmere Island, in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
It is no news that global warming and climate change are wreaking havoc on the cold regions of our planet, whether it is the hot climate in the otherwise freezing Siberia or the Arctic fires that are causing immense damage to life and property.
And now, reports reveal that Canada¡¯s last fully intact Arctic ice shelf collapsed in the final days of July.
Reuters/NASA
Reported first by Reuters, The Milne Ice Shelf is located at the edge of Ellesmere Island, in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. According to Canadian Ice Service on their Twitter handle, ¡°Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up.¡±
The chunk of ice that collapsed was of considerable size -- as large as cities according to Luke Copland, a glaciologist at the University of Ottawa who was one of the researchers studying the Milne Ice Shelf. He said, ¡°This was the largest remaining intact ice shelf, and it¡¯s disintegrated, basically.¡±
Global warming heating up Arctic region
The shelf saw the size of the area drop by around 80 square kilometres. To put things into perspective, the island of Manhattan in New York, US is around 60 square kilometres.
The Arctic has been heating up at twice the rate, compared to the world due to a phenomenon called Arctic amplification. However, this year has been the most intense. According to Copland, summer in the Canadian Arctic has been five degrees more than the 30-year average -- and that¡¯s considerable.
Reuters/NASA
The rising temperatures are now threatening smaller ice caps since they¡¯re not as bulky as large glaciers, so they melt faster. As this melts, the bedrock surfaces and it speeds up the melting process even more.
In this collapse, we¡¯ve also lost the northern hemisphere¡¯s last known epishelf lake -- where the freshwater body is held by the ice shelf and it floats on ocean water. Researchers also lost their research camp, including several instruments.
