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MULTIYEAR ARCTIC ICE VANISHES
Reuters - The multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes, an Arctic expert said . . Vast sheets of impenetrable multiyear ice, which can reach up to 80 meters (260 feet) thick, have for centuries blocked the path of ships seeking a quick short cut through the fabled Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They also ruled out the idea of sailing across the top of the world.
But David Barber, Canada's Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba, said the ice was melting at an extraordinarily fast rate.
"We are almost out of multiyear sea ice in the northern hemisphere," he said in a presentation in Parliament. The little that remains is jammed up against Canada's Arctic archipelago, far from potential shipping routes.
But David Barber, Canada's Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba, said the ice was melting at an extraordinarily fast rate.
"We are almost out of multiyear sea ice in the northern hemisphere," he said in a presentation in Parliament. The little that remains is jammed up against Canada's Arctic archipelago, far from potential shipping routes.
1 Comments:
I served a couple of years on an icebreaker in the 1960s.
A detail left out is that fresher ice is easier to break through. As I recall the reason is a higher salt content. The salt slowly settles out.
We were careful not to slam into the pretty blue ice. It could put a hole through out very thick hull.
This implies that a reinforced hull vessels like those serving Anchorage, Alaska, could navigate a longer season.
I don't recall any pressure ridges over about 35 feet thick in open ocean. We (USCGC Northwind) could slowly bash through about 26 feet. The Russian nuclear icebreakers go just about anywhere anytime.
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