Canada’s last intact ice sheet has broken, with a massive section larger than the island of Manhattan collapsing into the ocean, the Canadian Ice Service announced this.
More than 40 percent of the Milne Ice Shelf, on the edge of Ellesmere Island, has now fallen victim to Arctic waters that have warmed at twice the global rate over the past three decades, researchers said.
“Whole cities are so big. These are large pieces of ice, “Luke Copland, a glaciologist at the University of Ottawa, told Reuters about the section that collapsed.
“This was [Canada’s] largest remaining intact ice shelf, and it is basically disintegrated. ”
The collapse, which took place for several days at the end of July, has shrunk the area of the plank by about 31 square kilometers. Manhattan is nearly 23 square miles.
Satellite imagery shows the massive hunks of ice break down in the water.
This summer, Canadian Arctic 5 degrees Celsius has been above the 30-year average, according to Copland, who was part of a team that examined the board.
Copland’s entire research camp on the shelf was lost in the column.
“It’s fortunate that we were not on the ice when this happened,” co-researcher Derek Mueller said in a blog post about the incident.
The team said that as larger sections such as the plank melt, it also speeds up the melting of smaller parts, as it exposes more bedding and heats the surrounding area.
“You have the feeling that you’re on a sinking island behind these features, and these are great features,” Copland said.
“It’s not like it’s a little bit of ice you find in your garden.”
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