The Arctic’s largest ice shelf has broken up. Climate change is the leading culprit. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf has been floating on the sea surface, attached to the north coast of Canada’s Ellesmere Island for around 3,000 years. In spring of last year, large fractures suddenly appeared; by that August the shelf had broken in two. The weakening of the ice shelf appears to be the result of rapid warming in the Arctic, say the researchers. “The climate change seems to be occurring at a faster rate than before the 1990s, says Jeffries. Recent collapse of ice shelves in the Antarctic has also been blamed on climate change.
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