Chevy Chase (USA): A part of the Arctic is known as the “Last Ice Area” because the surface of the ocean, ice there is usually very thick, But scientists were surprised when a sudden melting of ice created an area large enough for a ship to pass.
It was caused by a strange weather phenomenon, but the thinning of the ocean ice sheet due to decades of climate change is an important factor, according to a study published Thursday in the journal ‘Communications Earth and Environment’. The region around the Earth’s the North Pole is called the Arctic. Scientists say that most of the Arctic ice may melt by the middle of this century, but the Last Ice Area was not part of this assessment.
Study co-author Kent Moore of the University of Toronto said that by the summer of around 2100, an area of one million square kilometers will not be ice-free. “It’s called the Last Ice Area for a reason,” said co-author Mike Steele from the University of Washington. We used to think that it was kind of stable. It is quite surprising that in 2010 the ice in this region started melting unusually.”
Another co-author of the study, Kristin Leder, said scientists believe that Greenland and the northern region of Canada may be the last refuge for animals such as polar bears that depend on ice. Moore said that the main reason for the sudden melting of snow was exceptionally strong winds, which caused the snow to melt from this area and started moving to the coast of Greenland.
