Massive Arctic ice shelf breaks away
CANADA: A huge 19 square mile (55 square km) ice shelf in Canada's
northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have
shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, the latest sign of
accelerating climate change in the remote region, scientists said on
Tuesday.
They said the Markham Ice Shelf, one of just five remaining ice
shelves in the Canadian Arctic, split away from Ellesmere Island in
early August. They also said two large chunks totaling 47 square miles
(76 square km) had broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it
in size by 60 percent.
"The changes ... were massive and disturbing," said Warwick Vincent,
director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in
Quebec. 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.
"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. OTTAWA, Wednesday,
Reuters
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