SAN FRANCISCO — Climate change could turn the Arctic Ocean into an ice autobahn. Sea ice, much of it chunks of floating ice, is becoming younger and thinner as old ice melts. That new ice travels farther and faster than older ice, carrying dirt, organisms and pollution along for the ride, new research shows.
Tracking the movements of Arctic ice over several years, researchers noticed that ever larger areas of ice now make the trek from one side of the ocean to the other. That movement means that the far-flung reaches of the Arctic are becoming more connected, Robert Newton said December 16 at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting. That’s a problem, as migrating ice will boost the risk of widespread environmental disaster from events such as oil spills, said Newton, an oceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y.