Mad Max
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| After 20 Years, No Ice at North Pole |
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| Written by madmax | |
| Friday, 24 June 2011 08:59 | |
 The area of ??sea ice in the Arctic experienced an unusual drop in September 2010. Although the ice in the Arctic Ocean had a normal cycle that melts in summer and then freezes again in winter, but ice coverage becomes thinner and not dense as usual.According to some researchers, the ice conditions in the northern polar region is the third worst since the last 30 years. When the ice began to spread on 10 September, researchers assume that the melt season has ended. However, they were later surprised to learn that the ice cover shrank back on September 19, 2010. "This change indicates that the layer of ice formed at this time thin and not solid," said Walt Meier, NSIDC scientific researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as quoted by LiveScience, October 6, 2010. "It makes the ice sheet vulnerable to gusts of wind and then thaw," he said. Ice in the Arctic waters reached the lowest point, which is only covering 4.6 million square kilometers, on September 19. This makes the year 2010 broke the record where the ice area reached the third lowest point, both for daily or monthly numbers. Ice cover in September 2010 came in third behind 2007 and 2008 that reached the lowest point of the first and second. Old and thick ice layer (aged five years or more) has almost entirely disappeared in the Arctic. A dense layer of old ice, last September left only less than 60 thousand square kilometers. For comparison, a layer of ice that was 5 years old or more at around the same time in the 1980's reached a size of 2 million square kilometers. "All the instructions indicate that the ice in the Arctic region will continue to decrease in coming decades," said Mark Serreze, Director of the NSIDC. "We expect, in 20 to 30 years into the future, chances are there will be periods where the north polar ice will no longer be found," he said. |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 24 June 2011 09:09 ) |
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