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Ancient ice shelf snaps and breaks free from the Canadian Arctic

Associated Press: Scientists have discovered that the Ayles Ice Shelf — all 41 square miles of it — broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic. The delay in reporting the news came about because satellite imagery of the area have only recently analysed.

Said Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, "This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years," Vincent said. "We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead."

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