‘Last Ice Area’
Context
- Arctic’s ‘Last Ice Area’ shows earlier-than-expected melt.
About
- Part of the Arctic is nicknamed the “Last Ice Area,” because floating sea ice there is usually so thick that it’s likely to withstand global warming for decades.
- It’s called the Last Ice Area for a reason. It was kind of stable.
- So, scientists were shocked last summer when there was suddenly enough open water for a ship to pass through.
- While scientists have said most of the Arctic could be free of summer sea ice by mid-century, the Last Ice Area was not part of that equation.
- The main cause for the sudden ice loss was extraordinary strong winds that pushed the ice out the region and down the coast of Greenland.
- In the past, thicker Wandel Sea ice would have resisted the strong winds, but in 2020 it was thinner and “more easily broken up and pushed out.
- Another part of the Last Ice Area, off Canada’s Ellesmere Island, had open waters after the July 2020 collapse of part of the Milne ice shelf.
Note: The Arctic region covers parts of eight countries: Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and the United States.
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