August 2008 - The Markham Ice Shelf on the coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada broke free entirely from the island and went adrift in the Arctic Ocean.
The Markham Ice Shelf was estimated to be approximately 4500 years old. It was about 19 square miles in area (somewhat smaller than Manhattan) and about 10 stories thick.
Arctic temperatures have been increasing much faster than global temperatures as a whole, which is consistent with what models predict for increasing CO2 as humans ave been doing for the last 200 years. Increased temperatures in the Arctic are leading to reduced ice cover, warmer sea temperatures, changing ecosystems and many other effects. The loss of ice cover, like the Markham Ice Shelf is the sort of effect that is completely consistent with the magnitude of global warming occurring in the Arctic.
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This is one in the series of "Climate Decade in Review" posts on this blog that began in January 2010. These posts present climate-change-related events that occurred during the 00's, the warmest decade in recorded history.
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