EARTH CHANGES

Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on the north coast of Ellesmere Island,
Nunavut territory, Canada. Ninety percent is now gone. Image courtesy NOAA.

Largest ice shelf in Arctic has broken up

Scientists at the University in Quebec City, Canada, and University of Alaska, Fairbanks, reported in the most recent Geophysical Research Letters that the Arctic's largest ice shelf - the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory - has broken up and all of its fresh water has poured out through the Disraeli Fjord. The region has been warming four-tenths of a degree centigrade every ten years since 1967. But the scientists are reluctant to say if it is the result of global warming or a regional climate anomaly. But it's a fact that a century ago, the northern border of Ellesmere Island was a solid ice shelf. Now, about 90% of that ice is gone.