Beaufort Sea ice is breaking up

[pscot]

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=9cc58150-350b-4af1-b041-0242f92213c2

Giant fractures have been cracking open the ice in the Beaufort Sea in recent weeks, creating extraordinary stretches of open water and giving researchers from around the world a first-hand look at the Arctic meltdown.

"It's shocking to see," says David Barber, a climate specialist at the University of Manitoba. He is heading an international project, involving more than 200 researchers from 15 countries, on the Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard ship over-wintering in the Beaufort.

"The fractures are huge," says Barber, who recently returned from the Amundsen and says some cracks are more than 100 kilometres across. "We drove our ship down one of them and you couldn't see the sides of it."

[NMDemDist2]

1. that article is dated January 2008! n/t