Scientists return to Milne Fiord to investigate aftermath of ice shelf collapse

There have been rapid changes over the past two years in the Arctic, but few more dramatic than the collapse of the Milne Ice Shelf on northern Ellesmere Island in 2020. 

Freelance journalist Dustin Patar travelled north this summer with scientists who are investigating the effects of the collapse.

WATCH: Reverberations of the Milne Ice Shelf Collapse

Reverberations of the Milne Ice Shelf collapse

2 years ago

Duration 3:44

After the Milne Ice Shelf on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island collapsed in 2020, a lake it was supporting disappeared. Scientists returned north this summer to try to understand what that could mean for the island's glaciers.

The Milne Shelf, located within the Tuvaijuittuq marine protected area, was considered Canada's last fully intact ice shelf, and had stood for about 4,000 years. Tuvaijuittuq means "the place where the ice never melts" in Inuktitut.

The area is projected to be the last portion of the Arctic Ocean to maintain year-round ice — until 2050, that is, by which time the oldest and strongest ice in the Arctic is expected to melt.

Scientists had pointed out fractures in the Milne Ice Shelf long before July of 2020, when nearly half of it broke off, creating smaller ice islands now adrift in the Arctic Ocean.

Almost two years after the collapse of the Milne Ice Shelf another major change came to light — the disappearance of Canada's last remaining epishelf lake, which was supported by the intact ice shelf. This year marks the first year scientists were able to return to study the area.