(June 30, 2008)--A chunk of ice spreading across seven square miles has broken off a Canadian ice shelf in the Arctic, scientists sayk.
Researcher Derek Mueller is careful not to blame global warming, but says it is consistent with the theory that the current Arctic climate isn't rebuilding ice sheets.
Mueller says the sheet broke away last week from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's far north.
He says a crack in the shelf was first spotted in 2002 and a survey this spring found a network of fissures.
The sheet is the biggest piece shed by one of Canada's six ice shelves since the Ayles shelf broke loose in 2005 from the coast of Ellesmere, about 500 miles from the North Pole.