Markham Ice Shelf

Markham Ice Shelf

The Markham Ice Shelf was one of five[1] major ice shelves in Canada, all located on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. The ice shelf broke off from the coast in early August 2008, becoming adrift in the Arctic Ocean. At the time, the 4,500 year old ice shelf was 19 square miles (49 km2) in size, nearly the size of Manhattan,[2] and approximately ten stories tall.[3] On September 3, 2008, CNN quoted Derek Mueller, of Trent University in Ontario, Canada as saying to the Associated Press:[4]

"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.

As of September 6, it was floating in the Arctic Ocean.[5]

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

External links



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ice shelf — An ice shelf is a thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves are found in Antarctica, Greenland and Canada only. The boundary between the floating ice… …   Wikipedia

  • Markham — may refer to: Contents 1 Biology 2 Companies 3 Linguistics 4 …   Wikipedia

  • Markham — Markham1 [mär′kəm] (Charles) Edwin 1852 1940; U.S. poet Markham2 [mär′kəm] 1. [after Rev. W. Markham (1720 1806), Archbishop of York (England)] city in SE Ontario, Canada, northeast of Toronto: pop. 173,000 2. Mount mountain in Antarctica, near… …   English World dictionary

  • Markham, Mount — geographical name mountain 14,275 feet (4351 meters) Antarctica W of Ross Ice Shelf …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Clements Markham — Clements Robert Markham Born 20 July 1830(1830 07 20) Stillingfleet, England Died 29 January 1916( …   Wikipedia

  • Discovery Expedition — The expedition ship Discovery in the Antarctic, alongside the Great Ice Barrier The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions… …   Wikipedia

  • Robert Falcon Scott — Infobox person name = Robert Falcon Scott image size = 200px name = Robert Falcon Scott birth date = birth date|1868|6|6 death date = death date and age|1912|3|29|1868|6|6 birth place = Devon, England death place = Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica… …   Wikipedia

  • Ellesmere Island — Infobox Islands name = Ellesmere Island image caption = image size = 350px locator map custom = no native name = native name link = nickname = location = Northern Canada coordinates = coord|80|N|79|W|region:CA type:isle… …   Wikipedia

  • Plataforma de hielo — Borde de la plataforma de hielo de Ekström. Borde de la …   Wikipedia Español

  • Isla de Ellesmere — (Ellesmere Island o Île d Ellesmere) Localización País …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”