Abstract
An abandoned ll‐by‐5‐km kidney‐shaped chunk of freshwater ice, used as a research station for 25 years, was rediscovered after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lost track of the island for 6 months. The recent find may foreshadow another loss, however: The island is drifting through the Greenland Sea and into the North Atlantic where it should melt within several months and d u m p its cargo of oil drums, equipment, and a wrecked plane into the ocean.Known as Fletcher's Ice Island—after Joseph O. Fletcher, a member of the first team of researchers to inhabit the island and a recently retired NOAA climate researcher—the ice chunk has already melted to a third of its original 49 m thickness. A pilot flying over the area to measure annual pollution buildup in the Arctic located the drifting island 242 km from the North Pole near the International Date Line.
Published Version
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