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Arctic's Vanishing Summer Ice To Be Measured

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 09:25 CDT

Five years after his solo trek, Pen Hadow from Britain will return to the North Pole to determine when Arctic summer sea ice will disappear forever.  Hadow will be part of a team collecting accurate measurements of the thickness of the ice.

As the ice recedes, countries that surround the region are racing to claim some of the richest mineral and marine resources on the surface of the earth.  These nations can now remove these natural resources that were once covered by thick layers of sea ice. For instance, Russia has claimed half of the Arctic Sea bed which may contain large amounts of gas and oil.

Every ten years about 116,000 square miles of ice, roughly equivalent to the British Islands, recedes, according to most estimates. Accurate measurements are lacking.

The team will travel for up to 12 hours per day for about 120 days. Hadow said that moving equipment over the surface will help produce data that could not be collected by other methods using submarines and satellites.

Between February and May, the team will take 10 million readings which will provide data regarding the possible effect of the loss of sea ice on wildlife and the planet.

The Northwest passage which  opens during the summer could remain ice-free for longer periods of time cutting weeks off the east-west route.

Estimates vary concerning the total disappearance of the Artic sea ice. These range from five to 100 years.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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