Last Ice Area: Where multi-year Arctic sea ice could make its final stand

Oct 17, 2021

With warming climate, summer sea ice in the Arctic has been shrinking fast, and now consistently spans less than half the area it did in the early 1980s. Image: Unsplash/Nuno Antunes

Kevin Krajick

Earth Institute's senior editor, science news

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Purple cross-hatched portion of the Last Ice Area is Canada’s Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area. Image: Adapted from Newton et al., Earth’s Future, 2021

Sea ice north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This photo was taken from an ice breaker just outside the projected Last Ice Area, which is almost impossible to navigate by ship. Image: Robert Newton/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

A bit of open water on the outskirts of the Last Ice Area; in background, the U.S. ice breaker Image: Robert Newton/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

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