Another Brick in the Wall - Google Blogger

Using US and Canadian satellite images, as well as seismic data - the
event registered on earthquake monitors more than 150 miles away -
Professor Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed in the early
afternoon of 13 August 2005. Scientists were surprised at the speed of
the event, Professor Copland said - it took less than an hour.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2112609.ece

The Ayles ice shelf, more than 40 square miles in extent - over five
times the size of central London - has broken clear from the coast of
Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the
Canadian Arctic, it emerged yesterday.

As much attention as environmentalists pay to the Arctic as a harbinger
of doom about human induced global warming, it is surprising this event
went relatively unnoticed. It seems they have only 'discovered' it well
over a year after the fact.

And why scientists would be surprised at the speed of the event is
beyond me. It's ice, not stone. When that stuff shears, it doesn't do
it slowly. Perhaps having lived in Northern Canada gives me a unique
perspective on the bahviour of ice, but these are supposed to be experts
in the field. Anyone who has watched a spring thaw of a major river
knows how fast that happens. It's a heck of a lot quicker when the ice
pack in question isn't bounded on all sides.

It'd be interesting to go back to the beginning of the Ice Age and see
what kind of fear mongering we'd see about Global Freezing and how it's
all our fault.