North Pole is An ‘Island’ As Northwest and Northeast Passages Open

For the first time in at least 125,000 years, the precipitous melting of Arctic Ocean ice has simultaneously opened up the Northwest Passage above Canada and the Northeast Passage across the Russian Arctic, according to satellite images taken this week. Scientists at the University of Bremen in Germany said that both passages — the Northwest Passage is shown as a solid line and the Northeast Passage as a dotted line — are now navigable without an icebreaker. The image above shows the remaining ice surrounding the North Pole in white, Greenland just below the pole, the land mass of Russia to the right, and Canada and Alaska to the left.