No ice over the arctic by summer 2013

The Arctic Ocean, located in the northern hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region. Arctic summer melting in 2007 set new records. The polar ice pack is thinning, and there is a seasonal hole in ozone layer in many years. Reduction of the area of Arctic sea ice will have an effect on the planet’s albedo, thus possibly affecting global warming within a positive feedback mechanism

The most important areas of pack ice are the polar ice packs formed from seawater in the Earth’s polar regions: the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean. Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. In the end, it will just melt away quite suddenly. It might not be as early as 2013 but it will be soon, much earlier than 2040.

Change in arctic Sea Ice Extent Image / Photo

From the BBC Story:

Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.

Professor Wieslaw Maslowski told an American Geophysical Union meeting that previous projections had underestimated the processes now driving ice loss.

Summer melting this year reduced the ice cover to 4.13 million sq km, the smallest ever extent in modern times.

Read more: Arctic summers ice-free ‘by 2013’

The Largest Ocean of The World

Find out about the largest named ocean in the world which covers half the surface of the entire world.

Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by nothing but water i.e. ocean. It is divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. There are five major oceanic divisions as follows:

  1. Pacific Ocean
  2. Atlantic Ocean
  3. Indian Ocean
  4. Southern Ocean
  5. Arctic Ocean

The Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth’s oceanic divisions. According to wikipedia:

It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At 169.2 million square kilometres (65.3 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean – and, in turn, the hydrosphere – covers about 46% of the Earth’s water surface and about 32% of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth’s land area combined. The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the Pacific and in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,798 ft)

The Pacific Ocean Largest Ocean Of The World
Fig.01: The Pacific Ocean Largest Ocean Of The World (credit: International Space Station / NASA)

The Pacific Ocean is the body of water between Asia and Australia in the west, the Americas in the east, Southern Ocean to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. It joins the Atlantic Ocean at a line drawn due south from Cape Horn, Chile/Argentina to Antarctica, and joins the Indian Ocean at a line drawn due south from Tasmania, Australia to Antarctica.