Will ice melt open the fabled Northwest Passage? (August 29, 2002)
Researchers say Arctic route could thaw in next decade

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/press_release/northwest_passage.htm (partial source for paragraph 3)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6797 (partial source paragraph 4)

B.   History of the Northwest Passage

    The Northwest Passage NWP is the long-sought after
    water route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific
    Oceans north of the North American mainland.

    In the top diagram (red line) and bottom diagram
    (green line) possible water routes are suggested.
    Of course, the sea lanes have to be largely free
    of ice for these routes to be useful. 

     Between the 16th and 19th centuries, explorers from Europe, particularly the British,
     made numerous attempts to discover such a route. They voyaged north and west,
     by river or by sea from the east coast of North America.

                           
   fur traders heading inland                      Lewis & Clark's inland route
 

 
  replica of Hudson's Halfmoon

    The notion of an open sea route, had a long-lasting influence on the search for the
    Passage and was still believed in by some navigators and geographers as late as the
    1890s.
    When in 1905 the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen actually
     completed a difficult but successful summer voyage through the Passage, the news
     electrified the world, even though this exploration was not a practical solution at that
     time in history to a water route between Europe & Asia.

 
                                                                                                                                                                                      
    In this satellite image over the north pole, the tip of
    Siberia (eastern Asia) is just above the blue ice mass
    and Scandanavia (part of Europe) is below the blue
    ice mass and east of the white (Greenland) ice mass. 
    Alaska is also just above the blue ice mass and
    Greenland is conveniently shown in white. 

        In this more traditional view of the same arctic region,
        you can see that there are two gateways to the route around
        North America.   The eastern gate is west of the Danish
        island of Greenland and east of Canadian island.  The
        western gate is controlled by Alaska and Siberia.

 
        Thus there are two potential Passages connecting the
        Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The long sought after NWP
        route is shown as the grey line to the west of the north pole
        (center black region) and the now alternate route is shown
        as the green line to the east (right) of the pole.

Review Questions:

1.     The fables Northwest Passage connects which two oceans?  _____ & _____
2.     List three famous explorers who searched for the Northwest Passage.
        ____________, ___________, _____________
3.    Who completed the first successful passage through the NWP?   _____________.
4.    Which two countries control the eastern gateway to the NWP?
        ____________, _____________
5.    Which two countries control the western gateway to the NWP?  (Hint, I only
        named a region of each of these two countries.)
        ___________,  _____________
 

    ANSWERS TO THIS HISTORY SECTION
  

    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rapid melting of the Arctic ice pack may turn a cherished

     sailor's myth into reality.

        The Northwest Passage could be ice-free in summer in as
        few as 10 years. This well-documented continuing Arctic
        thaw is reducing polar ice; a change that is likely to have
        profound effects on commerce, ecology and native cultures,

    The fabled route runs below Iceland and Greenland,
    through the Arctic archipelago in northern Canada,
    and along the northern coast of Alaska.  See the red
    line for one such route.

    Even during the summer, when the sea ice
    has melted or thinned, icebreakers
    (as of 2002) must often accompany ships
    through the passage.

    An ice-free Northwest Passage
    would let ships traveling
    between Europe and Asia
    shave more than 4,000 miles
    off the route through the 
    Panama canal.    

     A NWP would allow ships to avoid the occasional delays and the passage fees
    of the Panama Canal.

    In addition, many of the
    largest container and
    tanker ships

barely fit    through the canal.

    The canal was built in 1914 when ships were smaller. 

                                                                                                                                                       
    The traditional alternative to a
    NWP was forcing shippers to
    use smaller vessels, but
    hopefully not these vessels. 
     

 or

    to take the even longer, more
    treacherous route around
    South America's Cape Horn.
    Cape Horn is at the extreme
    southern tip of S. America
    and is subject to some of the
    worst seafaring weather in the
    world. 

           Partial Citation for this paragraph three   http://www.natice.noaa.gov/press_release/northwest_passage.htm

    But the potential northwest passage
    windfall for shippers could threaten
    native cultures ...

                                      ... and threaten native wildlife.

    The combination of declining ice and dramatically increased ship traffic could alter the

     feeding habits of fish   ,   seals

          and polar bears   

        The decrease of these vital organisms would  ...                       

    further threaten the traditional way of life of the Innuit
    communities of the far north that depend on ice-bound Arctic
    creatures for their survival.

      The specter of an Exxon Valdez-like oil spill  
      also raises concern throughout the region.

                                                           
     Exxon-Valdez oil spill a bird on           a bird                                  a seal

    Shipping experts caution the passage probably would be safe for shipping traffic only in the summer, and

    ships using the Arctic route would need    
    substantial investment in reinforced hulls
    to survive ice collisions or entrapment 

    The U.S. Arctic Research Commission        

    which predicts that in as little as a decade ships would find ice-free passage in the summer months.
    More conservative climate models show the Northwest Passage opening before the year 2080 at the latest.

     REVIEW QUESTIONS:

    10.    List three types of species that might be hurt by increased arctic shipping.
            a.  __________________  b.  _________________  c.  ________________
    11.   What do we call the Innuit peoples of northern Canada and Alaska?  ______________
    12.    What type of ship was the Exxon-Valdez?   ___________________
    13.    How might ship builders extend the time span each year when ships might use the NWP?
            __________________________

(21 August 2008) (I)

[Source: Sea ice information from National Ice Center; graphic created by Mr. Sherief Guirguis of U.S. Northern Command. [These are from bi-weekly ice charts.]

In the following series of sea ice images, the arctic ice pack has been mapped at similar times of the year. Images from 2005, 2007 & 2008 are presented. Due to a series of conditions, the 2006 summer (Ref.) showed no thinning of the ice pack, but other measures still showed the continued effects of global warming.

(29 August 2005) (I) Three possible shipping routes of the NWP are indicated. Both Victoria Strait (southerly route) and Parry Channel (northerly routes) were blocked by sea ice.

(31 August 2007) (I) The southerly route or the NWP via Victoria Strait was mostly ice-free, but Queen Maud Gulf contained areas of ice (dark green), indicating hazards still existed. However, Amundsen’s 1905 route through the NWP was ice-free.

(14 September 2007) (I) Parry Channel continued to have ice hazards, and some ice was present at the eastern entrance to Lancaster Sound. While large segments of the southerly route of the NWP remained freely navigable, the NWP was not completely ice-free.

( 2008) (I) Sea ice conditions now show that the southern portion of the Northwest Passage (NWP) is open and freely navigable The bottom graphics are presented to show historical conditions from 2005 and 2007.

Though there was more ice in the Beaufort Sea (I) at the end of July 2006 than there had been in previous years, the Arctic as a whole continued to melt at an ever-quickening pace. By June 2006, sea ice in the Arctic covered 1.2 million fewer square kilometers than the long-term average measured between 1979 and 2000, said Meier.