ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Pictures from an annual marine research forum in Anchorage show a glacial meltdown is under way in Alaska and Greenland.
Two photos taken about 50 years apart show the McCall Glacier in the Brooks Range -- once a bulging river of ice - has shrunk significantly, reported the Anchorage Daily News.
John Walsh, of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and lead scientist at the International Arctic Research Center said the slides indicate a significant overall glacial meltdown in Alaska and Greenland, with the Arctic ice pack withering during the summers of 2002, 2003 and 2004. As a result there is a vast ice-free expanse in the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska's Arctic Coast.
The rising sea has created an erosion problem as surf tears away at the bank in the Alaska coastal village of Shishmaref, consuming land and undercutting village housing, according to Walsh.
