Research: Arctic ice smaller, thinner, younger
18:54, 7 April 2009
BEIJING. April 7. KAZINFORM The Arctic is stepping on smaller and thinner ice than ever before?Cwith strong old ice increasingly being replaced by quick-to-melt young ice, said researchers with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
According to the researchers, this winter's maximum Arctic sea ice extent was 5.85 million square miles (15million and 150,000 square kilometers) -- about 278,000 square miles (720,000 square kilometers) less than the Arctic average between 1979 and 2000.
In normal winters, ice is often about 10 feet(3 meters )thick or more, but this year, the thick ice cap barely penetrates the bull's-eye of the Arctic Circle.
"We're not set up well for summertime," ice data center scientist Walt Meier said, "We're in a very precarious situation", Kazinform cites Xinhua.
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