Arctic ice cap to disappear in 20-30 years: study

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 10/14/09 | Elodie Mazein

[NormsRevenge]

LONDON (AFP) – The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.

It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.

Veteran polar explorer Hadow and two other Britons went out on the Arctic ice cap for 73 days during the northern spring, taking more than 6,000 measurements and observations of the sea ice.

The raw data they collected from March to May has been analysed, producing some stark predictions about the state of the ice cap.

"The summer ice cover will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years but in less than that it will have considerably retreated," said Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the polar ocean physics group at Britain's prestigious Cambridge University.

"In about 10 years, the Arctic ice will be considered as open sea."

Starting off from northern Canada, Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels skied over the ice cap to measure the thickness of the remaining ice, assessing its density and the depth of overlying snow, as well as taking weather and sea temperature readings.

Across their 450-kilometre (290 mile) route, the average thickness of the ice floes was 1.8 metres (six feet), while it was 4.8 metres when incorporating the compressed ridges of ice.

"An average thickness of 1.8 metres is typical of first year ice, which is more vulnerable in the summer. And the multi-year ice is shrinking back more rapidly," said Wadhams.

"It's a concrete example of global change in action.

[calex59]

They just don’t want to let go of it do they? Communist(and global warming is backed by the communist)just don’t pay attention to the truth and keep right on telling their lies. We could be a** deep in snow all across the country in the middle of July and they would still bleat about global warming.

[NormsRevenge]

pretty tame.. lol

I see Los Gatos recorded 75 mph winds or so too.

On to the next one. ;-)

[EggsAckley]

The most bizarre thing was when I went out on the driveway about 4PM and there was NO wind and NO rain for about twenty minutes. The all of a sudden we got slammed by a HUGE burst of wing from the west. I ran to the computer to see the weather map, and sure enough, we had been in the “eye” of the storm for about 15 minutess. With the violent West winds, before long the “eye” was passing Reno.

With all the “fear and loathing” I was feeling about the typhoon, I came away with a wonderful treasure of a memory about being right in the eye of it. A rare gift.