The Norwegians send teams out on to the floating ice to drill holes into it and extract cores to determine the ice's origin.
For example, it has been shown how polar glaciers speed up when the floating ice shelves that block their way to the ocean are removed.
Since the total mass of the ocean and ice remains unchanged during the melting process, this has often led to the erroneous assumption that sea level will be unaffected by the melting of floating ice, say geologists David Holland and Adrian Jenkins.
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Changes in the winter wind field broke up floating sea ice to create cracks that suggest the "opening of a Venetian blind, " said Dr Serreze.
Unlike much of the floating sea-ice which comes and goes, the shelves contain ice that is up to 4, 500 years old.
It's an inky blue body of water thick with floating, ancient ice.
Suchen looked at the slice of lemon floating among the ice cubes in her glass and blushed, as though the man were her companion.
The floating sea-ice, which would normally keep the shelves hemmed in, has shrunk to just under five million sq km, the second lowest extent recorded since the era of satellite measurement began about 30 years ago.
What a weird feeling - here we are floating on the ice in the Arctic, and I've just had a chat with International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander and over 300 people in the audience at the Department for International Development conference on world poverty, which is being held in London.
The 750 or so icebergs that break off from glaciers each year and drift south from Greenland are floating masses of freshwater ice formed in the pristine air of 3, 000 B.
The 750 or so icebergs that break off from glaciers each year and drift south from Greenland are floating masses of freshwater ice formed in the pristine air of 5, 000 years ago.
They spend most of their time on sea ice, this cap of ice that is floating around on the surface of the Arctic Ocean.
With the casino complete, the resort features a 2, 561-room hotel, a 1, 300, 000-square-foot (120, 000 m2) convention-exhibition centre, the 800, 000-square-foot (74, 000 m2) The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, an iconic ArtScience museum, two large theatres, seven "celebrity chef" restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1, 600 slot machines.
The melting of an ice shelf, which is merely a floating projection into the sea, would not affect sea levels.
The high point of the journey came on the second afternoon of the trip, as the ferry approached the incredible ice walls of the Patagonian glaciers, entering a turquoise-tinted bay thick with floating icebergs.
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