Ellesmere Ice Shelf

The former Ellesmere Ice Shelf was the largest ice shelf in the Arctic, encompassing about convert|3500|sqmi|km2 of the north coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada.cite web |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080729/wl_canada_nm/canada_arctic_col |title= Giant chunks break off Canadian ice shelf |accessdate=2008-07-29 |author=David Ljunggren |date=29 July 2008|work= |publisher=Reuters] The ice shelf was first documented by the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, in which Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich's party went from Cape Sheridan (82.47°N, 61.50°W) west to Cape Alert (82.27°N, 85.55°W). [ [http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic39-1-15.pdf Martin O. Jeffries, "Ice Island Calvings and Ice Shelf Changes, Milne Ice Shelf and Ayles Ice Shelf, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T.] . "Arctic" 39 (1) (March 1986)] The continuous mass of the Ellesmere Ice Shelf had been in place for at least 3,000 years.

During the twentieth century the Ellesmere Ice Shelf broke up into six separate shelves, the largest being the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. During the 1980s reassuring official science reported that the remnants were stable.

In April 2000, satellite images revealed that a large crack in the Ward Hunt shelf had begun to form, and in 2003 it was announced that the ice sheet had split completely in two in 2002, releasing a huge pool of fresh water from the largest epishelf lake in the Northern Hemisphere, located in Disraeli Fjord. [cite web|url=http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/wardhunt/ |title=Breakup of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf |author=NASA Earth Observatory] In April 2008, it was discovered that the shelf was fractured into dozens of deep, multi-faceted cracks. [cite web|url=http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/413838 |title=Cracks in Arctic ice shelf signal its demise |author=Bob Weber, The Canadian Press] It seems likely the shelf is disintegrating. On August 13, 2005, The Ayles Ice Shelf, which was located at (coord|83|1.5|N|77|33.5|W|), approximately km to mi|800|abbr=on|precision=-1 south of the North Pole, broke away from the coast forming the giant Ayles Ice Island m to ft|37|spell=Commonwealth|precision=0 thick and measuring around km to mi|14|abbr=on by km to mi|5|abbr=on in size with an area of approximately 66 km² (25.5 sq mi) or convert|2.6|km3|cumi|abbr=on|lk=on in volume.

The Milne Ice Shelf is the second large segment of the former Ellesmere Ice Shelf.

Notes