Barrier breakdown (Image: ESA)
EVERY winter the Arctic ice cap is penned in by curved barriers of ice spanning the straits that lead out of the Arctic Ocean. Now it seems that some of these ice arches are failing to form. The resulting exodus of sea ice into the Atlantic and Pacific could affect ocean circulation and marine life.
A team led by Ronald Kwok of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has studied satellite images of the Nares Strait – the narrow passage between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. For each of the last 13 years they noted…
