CANADA (voa) – U.S. and Canadian scientists say the largest ice shelf in the Arctic off Canada’s northern coast has broken up due to changing climate.
Scientists from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and Laval University in Quebec say the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island, which has been in place for at least 3,000 years, showed the first signs of cracking in 2000.
They say that by 2002, observations from the air and visits to the scene showed that the fracture extended widely, breaking the ice shelf into two major parts and many smaller ones.
The scientists warn this could be dangerous to shipping and drilling platforms in the Beaufort Sea. They blame global warming for the break-up. They say warmer temperatures weaken the ice, leaving it vulnerable to changed currents and other forces.
The scientists say the break-up also caused the loss of almost all of the freshwater from a fjord that formed behind the ice.
Their findings are due to appear in an upcoming issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union.
