Ice shelves are much thicker than sea based ice like the Arctic ice shield. The thickness of modern-day ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters. They consist of former land based ice up to thousands years old floating on the oceans now but still connected to continents.
When shelves melt they do not contribute to sea level rising. On the other hand they held back land ice and control the pouring rate. Land ice going off the continent causes rising sea level.
Most ice shelves are found in Antarctic, the biggest the Ross Ice Shelf is as big as France or in Greenland. Canadian ice shelves are attached to Ellesmere Island.
While large iceberg calving events are routine for ice shelves, disintegration is not. Ice shelves are particular sensible to Global Warming and scientists call them the canaries in the coal mine.
The collapse of canadian Ayles Shelf happened 16 month ago August 2005. Now researchers found that measured earthquake data from stations 250km away matches to satellite photos.
Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw:
This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead,…
Both photos above show Ayles shelf in the middle and the loss of a peace sizes 11,000 football fields.
Picture credit: Modis Rapid Response System showing Ellesmere Island
1: Aqua 2005-08-13 11:15 UTC; 2: Terra 2005-08-16 19:35 UTC
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