North Pole soon to be ice free in summer

The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporarily. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These are the results of a new research study involving 21 research institutes from around the world.

Eurasian ice sheet collapse raised seas eight metres: study

Ice sheets melting or breaking away as global temperatures rise are subject to what climate scientists term temperature “tipping points”. Many researchers fear that the ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica will continue to melt even if warming is slowed as carbon emissions are cut.

A rapidly changing Arctic

A new study found that freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean via the Transpolar Drift — a major surface current that moves water from Siberia across the North Pole to the North Atlantic Ocean.