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The Decreasing Arctic Ice Cover

JAN 01, 2000
New studies indicate that the Arctic Ocean’s ice cover is about 40% thinner than it was 20 to 40 years ago, and the area of its perennial ice could be shrinking at a rate of about 7% per decade.

Ongoing monitoring of Earth’s north polar region has been turning up numerous signs of change in its atmosphere, waters, and ice pack (see PHYSICS TODAY, November 1998, page 17). Such studies have revealed that the Arctic ice mass is shrinking, but now, it seems, the rates of decline are much more rapid than previously thought. Such changes are of concern because the polar region is expected to amplify any change in Earth’s climate.

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Volume 53, Number 1

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