Ayles Ice Shelf

The Ayles Ice Shelf was one of six major ice shelves in Canada, all on the north coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. The ice shelf broke off from the coast on August 13, 2005, forming a giant ice island 37 m (121 ft) thick and measuring around 14 by 5 km (8.7 by 3.1 mi) in size (approximately 55 km2 (21 sq mi) in area or 2.6 km3 (0.62 cu mi) in volume). The oldest ice in the ice shelf is believed to be over 3,000 years old. The ice shelf was at (82°52′N 80°30′W), approximately 800 km (500 mi) south of the North Pole. The Ayles Ice Shelf, like the nearby Mount Ayles, was named for the Arctic explorer, Adam Ayles, who served under George Nares as the Petty Officer of HMS Alert in the British Arctic Expedition. A 1986 survey of Canadian ice shelves found that 48 km2 (19 sq mi), a volume of 3.3 km3 (0.79 cu mi), of ice calved from the Milne and Ayles ice shelves between 1959 and 1974. Canada lost 94% of its overall ice shelf area between 1906 and 2015.

On August 13, 2005, the entire shelf broke clear from the coast of Ellesmere, forming a new ice island. It is believed to be the largest shelf breakup of its kind in Canada in over 30 years. The event was registered on seismometers in northern Canada, and it was also verified via satellite imagery. The breakup occurred over less than an hour. The event was noticed by the Canadian Ice Service at the time that it occurred, but it took a further 16 months to fully reconstruct the breakup sequence from past satellite images captured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), to determine the climatic conditions during the event, and for the event to garner public attention. The event, which has been linked to global warming, is similar to the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Within days of the breakup, the former shelf had drifted over 50 km (31 mi) from Ellesmere Island before freezing into the sea ice for the winter. It was estimated in May 2007 to be between 42 and 45 m (138 and 148 ft) thick, on average. The freed segment of the ice shelf, known as Ayles Ice Island, drifted southwesterly for two years, and in January 2007 accelerated into the open Arctic Ocean, causing concern for

Glacier data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).