What is the ice pack?

Sea ice

La pack It is a floating ice sheet that forms in the polar ocean regions. The survival of polar bears depends on the early formation of this icy surface, since it is through it that they can walk and, therefore, hunt. But we'll talk about that later.

Now we are going to focus on what the ice pack is, how it is formed, and what are the differences between the one formed in Antarctica and the one formed in the Arctic.

How is the ice pack formed?

Pack

The water freezes from the surface, since the one at the bottom is warmer because it has difficulties to increase its temperature when the very weakened solar rays reach it, much more than they already reach the surface of the Poles. So, begins to solidify when the melting / solidification point that accompanies salinity decreases, which is known as cryoscopic descent.

Later, they are formed small lenticular crystals of pure water, which meet and end up forming a completely frozen sea floor, with a thickness of around 1 meter if it is renewed every year, although it can be up to 20m in some points if it persists over time.

How is Antarctica different from Arctic?

Antarctica ice floe

The Antarctic and Arctic ice sheets, while they might be very similar in essence, are actually very different:

  • Antarctica: during the southern month of December, it almost completely disappears. In winter, it forms again, until it covers practically the entire continent. To give you an idea of ​​how it changes in the different seasons, you should know that in September, in the middle of the cold season or Polar Night as it is called, it reaches 18,8 million km2, while in March, in the warm season o Polar Day, is reduced to 2,6 million km2. So it is a temporary icy surface.
  • Arctic: on the other side of the world, the frozen ground is always like this, frozen. The parts closest to the surrounding continents melt every year, a moment that they take advantage of to navigate the Arctic Ocean. Even so, it also undergoes changes throughout the year: in March it reaches 15 million km2, and in September it reaches 6,5 million km2.

Can you browse them?

Ice floe on island

For several centuries there have been various human beings, such as Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), naval officer and Arctic explorer, who have wanted to seek the so-called Northwest Passage (Northwest Passage in English), which is the name by which the sea route that borders North America is known from the north, crossing the Arctic Ocean and connecting the Davis Strait and the Bering Strait, that is, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, but so far it has not been achieved. I repeat, until now.

The reality is that there are those who think that due to global warming the Arctic ice sheet could be reduced enough to be able to navigate through it. In fact, they are right, so much so that On August 21, 2007 the Northwest Passage was open to maritime traffic during the summer, and without the need to use icebreakers. This was the first time since records were started in 1972 that this step was cleared. In more recent times, without going any further, in 2016, we already informed you that a cruise ship with more than 1.600 people on board, including a thousand passengers, was due to leave Alaska on August 16, and arrive in New York on September 20.

Of course, human beings have always had that need and that illusion to see the world, but this could cause conflicts between the inhabitants of these regions (not only people, but also animals that come to browse).

What effects does the ice pack have on the global climate?

Arctic Ocean

Frozen sea ice has consequences not only in the regions where it forms, but also in the climate of the entire planet. It has two main effects:

  • Protects the ocean, as it acts as an insulator that prevents the sea from freezing. So, the distribution of heat on the planet is regulated.
  • The ice white is very reflective, contributing to the planetary albedo, which is the proportion of solar radiation that is returned to space.

What are the animals that benefit from the ice floe?

Polar Bear

The polar bears they are the animals we know the most. They are the largest mammals in the Arctic, and they need to hunt in order to survive. To do this, they depend on the ice pack, although the ice cover is increasingly reduced: between 1979 and 2011, it has decreased by 14% per decade. This forces them to swim more, endangering the lives of the young and their own.

There are other animals, such as seals, crustaceans (krill), fish that form a food chain that, unless effective measures are taken to curb global warming, the consequences of it could upset the balance of this delicate ecosystem.


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  1.   lucia martins said

    good article has helped me a lot for a job that I had to do

    1.    Monica sanchez said

      I'm glad it helped you, Lucia 🙂.

  2.   sergio hernandez said

    The perfect nature of nature is incredible and how man has been in charge of degrading poo by oco that balance is very good the article and all this information helped me to know more about this subject of animals and how the planet has made aware of that more than 8 billion people to stop this before it is just lamentations.