Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
of size ranging from a few kilometers to 600 square kilo-
meters and up to 50 m in thickness. The few ice islands in
the Arctic usually spawned from Ward Hunt ice shelf in
Ellesmere Island. After calving, the ice island usually
breaks into many small pieces that remain floating in
the polar areas for many years. More on the Ward Hunt
ice island is presented in Chapter 5. Floating ice islands
do not represent a threat to marine traffic because they
are not in the way of the traffic and are mostly confined
to the Arctic basin within the non‐navigable ice. However,
the breakup of ice shelves serves as a lookout to the
changing Arctic environment. The destruction of the eco-
system of the ice shelves is not repairable. It takes tens or
hundreds of thousands of years to restore it conditions.
