Arctic Sea Ice Extent Reaches Third-Lowest Level on Record

The extent of ice covering the Arctic Ocean has shrunk to its third-lowest level on record, covering 1.84 million square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. That area of ice coverage is 753,000 square miles smaller than the average minimum for the period 1979 to 2000, indicating a continuing decline in the amount of ice covering the Arctic Ocean as the region has rapidly warmed in the last several decades. The NSIDC said this year’s minimum sea ice extent, which apparently was reached on Sept. 10, was above the record low of 2007, when sea ice covered only 1.6 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean in September. Both the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean in Canada and the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic Ocean above Siberia were open this year. In addition to a steady decrease in the ice covering the Arctic Ocean in summer, Arctic sea ice is rapidly thinning, with multi-year ice that was once dozens of feet thick now less than five to 10 feet thick in many regions.