Researchers made an unprecedented inventory of glaciers in Ellesmere Island, in the northern Canada. The study catalogued more than 1,700 glaciers and explained how they had changed between 1999 and 2015.
The report is an important analysis of ice’s conditions in the zone, affected by warming temperatures. Adrienne White, a glaciologist at the University of Ottawa, told that the area is «very difficult to study: logistically it’s very hard to get to and even with satellite imagery, it was kind of forgotten place».
The most important thing White’s study has revealed is that the glaciers had shrank by more than 1,700 sq km of over a 16-year period, with a loss of about 6%. Indeed, among the 1,773 glaciers catalogued by White, 1,353 were found to have shrunk significantly. «What we found is a loss of three complete ice shelves – White claimed – in terms of glaciers that terminate on land, we’ve lost three small ice caps». Otherwise, none of the glaciers in the study showed any signs of growing.
White, who has known the zone for years, explained that once there was one continuous ice shelf, while now there are individual icebergs broken up, with a lot of crevasses.
According to White, the reason of ice shrinking is the increasing temperature. Indeed, Canada’s Arctic was used to be one of the world’s most glaciated regions while now it’s warming faster than the rest of the Earth. «These increases were greatest in autumn and winter – White said – so what you end up with is a lot more melt».
The main consequence of this phenomenon is the rising of sea levels, but the melting ice could also destroy the region’s ecosystems. «When these glaciers break away, all of a sudden there’s nothing holding back these ecosystems that have been growing and developing for thousands of years – White explained – And they’re gone before we even have the chance to study them». According to the scientist, the saddest thought is that «that glacier is just in a state of loss and it will disappear if climates don’t change».
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