The latest findings from scientists that have been monitoring the Arctic region show that the ice in the Arctic Ocean it’s now at the thinnest point in the past 30 years. Many scientists with considerable expertise in this field said that the ice cover surrounding the Arctic has been melting at such a fast rate that most of it could vanish within the next 30 years.
This is happening while in Antarctica, the Wilkins ice shelf has broke off from the main continent. The ice bridge that has held her steady so far has ruptured on Saturday. Although researchers were expecting this to happen, it occurred much earlier than expected.
According to a new report from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this winter, the Arctic sea ice extent was of 5.85 million square miles (the fifth-lowest area of ice cover since satellite surveys began in 1979), approximately 278,000 square miles under the average recorded between 1979 and 2000.
"That's a loss about the size of the state of Texas," said Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, according to National Geographic’s Web site.
"We used to have a winter ice maximum about twice the size of the lower 48 United States," Meier added.
NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center coordinated their efforts and the results from a series of ground research expeditions and images
from NASA’s satellites.
The amount or extent of the ice of the Arctic region first of all indicates the health if the region and also is of paramount importance because it reflects sunlight back into space. The equation is simple: the less ice it is, the warmer it gets on Earth. This would most certainly lead to higher sea levels and several other destructive effects.
"Ice extent is an important measure of the health of the Arctic," said Walter Fowler of the University of California's Snow and Ice Data Center, San Francisco Gate reported.
The findings were revealed on Monday in the 31st annual end-of-winter survey. The ice that is the source of freezing every autumn over the ocean that surrounds the pole is very thin. Scientists said it may last only a year. This year, most of the ice is thinner than normal and will probably not last the summer season.
The thin ice, which doesn’t last through the entire year, currently amounts to about 70 percent of the total ice cover, significantly more than 40 or 50 percent on average recorded in the 1980s, said Ronals Knowk of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which also plaid an important role in the survey. The old ice, which last two to three years, now amounts to just 10 percent of the entire ice cover, compared to 30 to 40 percent as it did in the 1980s.
