Chilling find for scientists as ice shelf snaps from Canadian Arctic

A GIANT ice shelf the size of 11,000 American football fields has snapped from Canada’s Arctic, scientists say.

The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere

Island, about 796km south of the North Pole, but no one was around to see it in Canada’s remote north.

Scientists, using satellite images, later noticed that it had becoame a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.

Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, travelled to the new 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,” Mr Vincent said.

In 10 years of working in the region he had never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice, he said.

The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 248km away picked up tremors.

Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years.

“It is consistent with climate change,” Mr Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves were 90% smaller than when first discovered in 1906.

“We aren’t able to connect all of the dots ... but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role.”