North Pole ice 'turns to water'

Arctic ice has become a mile-wide ocean, say scientists An American scientist says the ice cap at the North Pole has melted.

Dr James McCarthy, an oceanographer, says he found a mile-wide stretch of open ocean on a recent trip to the pole.

Some experts believe it is the first time in more than 50 million years that the North Pole has been covered in water rather than ice.

They point to it as further evidence of global warming - but other scientists say movements in polar ice regularly create gaps in the ice cap - including at the North Pole itself.

Dr McCarthy told the New York Times newspaper that he found the new patch of ocean during a trip earlier in August on board a Russian icebreaker.

"It was totally unexpected," he said.

Another scientist on the cruise, palaeontologist Dr Malcolm C McKenna, said the ship was able to sail all the way to the North Pole through only a thin crust of ice, and arrived on the spot to discover no ice at all.

"I don't know if anybody in history ever got to 90 degrees north to be greeted by water, not ice," Dr McKenna was quoted as saying.

"Some folks who pooh-pooh global warming might wake up if shown that even the pole is beginning to melt at least sometimes."

Ivory gulls

The lecturers say the ice cap in the whole area was so thin that the ship had to sail for another 10 kilometres (six miles) to find ice thick enough for the tourists to leave the boat and walk on the ice cap, as they had been promised.

The party also saw ivory gulls flying overhead, which ornithologists say is a first for the area.

Dr McCarthy, who is working on studies for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says has previously found the North Pole covered in some 3 metres (9 feet) of ice during the summer.

Shrinking

Despite the lack of agreement over whether the North Pole stretch of water was as a result of melting or ice movement, scientists do agree that the ice cap in general is shrinking.

Satellite studies have already suggested that the ice cover in the Arctic has thinned by more than 40% over the past 50 years.

Some scientists it could disappear altogether by the end of the 21st century.

Campaigners want tougher controls on pollution to try to slow down the global warming which they say is causing the changes.

-- Santa Claus (boat.wanted@will.trade.for.sleigh), August 21, 2000

Answers

Any chance that if this trend continues it could cause wobbling of the earth's axis?

-- Hacker2 (are@we.all.doomed?), August 21, 2000.

Bail. Somebody bail.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

I read something similar in our 'local' paper, this is some scarey crap, who keeps bringing up global warming?

I think 'if' it gets brought up again, I'll BELIEVE it this time.

xoxo,sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

It is midnight. The Blackbirds must have drowned.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), August 21, 2000.

Hey, um FS, are we really ALL gonna die?

xoxo,sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

Haven't any of you seen water melted ontop of ice during a sunny day in winter. FYI it is now summer in the Artic also.

For the Global Warming types riddle me this: how come no one talks about such things in Antartica??

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), August 21, 2000.

>> Haven't any of you seen water melted ontop of ice during a sunny day in winter. FYI it is now summer in the Artic also. <<

And FYI, this phenomenon has never been seen before, summer, winter, fall, or spring.

>> For the Global Warming types riddle me this: how come no one talks about such things in Antartica?? <<

The Arctic is an ocean. Oceans are a great heat sink. Currents, even under the Arctic ice cap, bring warmth from elsewhere, keeping the ice cap relatively thin compared to Antarctica.

"Dr McCarthy [...] has previously found the North Pole covered in some 3 metres (9 feet) of ice during the summer."

Antarctica is a continent. There won't be open ocean at the South Pole until plate tectonics shift that continent a considerable distance from where it is now - in maybe 80 million years.

The ice cover at the South Pole is one hell of a lot deeper, too, because it isn't sitting on top of deep (relatively warm) water. However, the ice shelves at the edge of Antarctica (that do sit on sea water) are shrinking, getting thinner and breaking up, too.

It is hard to believe you asked this, cpr. Is that really you, or just someone trying to make you look stupid?

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), August 21, 2000.

Thanks Brian a 'true' comment at last.

I DO remember way back when I was in elementary school they were teaching us these things.

xoxo,sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

Brian, I agree that, as much as I disagree with charlie over almost everything, those comments are just too stupid for him. Anyone reading the article would know that the observers were in a ship, an icebreaker, and hot damn, y'know it's sorta easy to tell the difference between open ocean and some meltwater on top of the ice. Those comments sound more like the middle schooler who occasionally makes similar posts to ice-cap-melting threads. Maybe he/she is trying to borrow charlie's credibnility, such as it is.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), August 21, 2000.

Is the value of ocean front property dropping?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 22, 2000.

"Is the value of ocean front property dropping?"

Not yet, people are too dumb. But it will when their houses go out to sea. Then they will start to figure out that land in the mountains might be more valuable.

-- (rocky@mountain.high), August 22, 2000.