The Artic is likely to be ice-free by the Summer of 2013, Prehaps even earlier, if you listen to the audio tape, by Professor Wieslaw Maslowski....found in the page below-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7139797.stmAfter that you might want to look in Real Time at the thousands
of Buoys , both floating and fixed in the Worlds Oceans, that are measuring Sea Temperatures and Sea Heights by Satellite and Radar
Thanks again Mike... back on topic....Over a year ago I offered a little bet....haha (...little bet!), I wonder what $20 will be worth in 2012?
http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthr...21752#Post21752...I did hear it mentioned that there were 5 more ice shelves like this one which could potentially break off, up in that region.
Betting pool? Dibs on 2012 for all six to be floaters, for 20 bucks.
Correspondents in Edmonton | July 31, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24104517-11949,00.html
"An area of ice covering about 18sqkm has broken off Canada's largest remaining ice shelf."
In a development consistent with climate change theories, the enormous icy plain broke free some time last week and began slowly drifting into the Arctic Ocean.
The piece had been a part of the shelf for 3000 years. At 440sqkm in size and 40m thick, the Ward Hunt shelf is the largest of those remnants -- even bigger than the Antarctic shelf that collapsed this year and seven times the size of the Ayles Ice Shelf that broke off in 2005 from Ellesmere's western coast.
Dr. Mueller did not blame the Ward Hunt breakup specifically on climate change, but said it was consistent with the theory.
"We're in a different climate now," he said.
It's the same all over the Arctic, said Gary Stern, co-leader of a major international research program on sea ice.
~More updates to come ...no doubt.