Markham Ice Shelf
The Markham Ice Shelf was one of five
The Markham Ice Shelf was a big surprise because it suddenly disappeared. We went under cloud for a bit during our research and when the weather cleared up, all of a sudden there was no more ice shelf. It was a shocking event that underscores the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic... The Markham Ice Shelf had half the biomass for the entire Canadian Arctic Ice Shelf ecosystem as a habitat for cold tolerant microbial life; algae that sit on top of the ice shelf and photosynthesize like plants would. Now that it's disappeared, we're looking at ecosystems on the verge of extinction.[4]
According to images from NASA, the ice shelf completely disintegrated over a period of 6 days in August 2008.[5] By 2015, it had completely melted.[6][7][8]
The ice shelf was named for Albert Hastings Markham, a British Arctic explorer.
Further reading
- Vincent, W. F., Mueller, D. R., & Bonilla, S. (2004). Ecosystems on ice: the microbial ecology of Markham Ice Shelf in the high Arctic. CRYOBIOLOGY. 48 (2), 103–112. OCLC 195074993
References
- ^ Ljunggren, David (September 2, 2008). "Massive Canada Arctic ice shelf breaks away". newsdaily.com. Reuters. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
- ^ Noronha, Charmaine (September 3, 2008). "19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada". Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
- ^ Satariano, Adam (September 3, 2008). "Canadian Arctic Ice Sheet Nearly Size of Manhattan Breaks Off". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
- ^ "4,500-year-old ice shelf breaks away". cnn.com. September 3, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008. [dead link]
- ^ "Rapid Retreat: Ice Shelf Loss along Canada's Ellesmere Coast". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. September 5, 2008. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
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- ^ Noronha, Charmaine (September 30, 2011). "Canadian Arctic nearly loses entire ice shelf". phys.org. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
- ^ "Rapid Retreat: Ice Shelf Loss along Canada's Ellesmere Coast". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. September 5, 2008. Retrieved November 14, 2019.