Sunday, 20 August, 2000, 02:16 GMT 03:16 UK

North Pole ice 'turns to water'

Arctic ice has become a mile-wide ocean, say scientists

An American scientist says the ice cap at the North Pole has melted. Dr James McCarthy, an oceanographer, says he found a mile-wide stretch of open ocean on a recent trip to the pole.

Some experts believe it is the first time in more than 50 million years that the North Pole has been covered in water rather than ice.

They point to it as further evidence of global warming - but other scientists say movements in polar ice regularly create gaps in the ice cap - including at the North Pole itself.

Future explorers may need snorkels not skis Dr McCarthy told the New York Times newspaper that he found the new patch of ocean during a trip earlier in August on board a Russian icebreaker.

"It was totally unexpected," he said.

Another scientist on the cruise, palaeontologist Dr Malcolm C McKenna, said the ship was able to sail all the way to the North Pole through only a thin crust of ice, and arrived on the spot to discover no ice at all.

"I don't know if anybody in history ever got to 90 degrees north to be greeted by water, not ice," Dr McKenna was quoted as saying.

"Some folks who pooh-pooh global warming might wake up if shown that even the pole is beginning to melt at least sometimes."

Ivory gulls

The lecturers say the ice cap in the whole area was so thin that the ship had to sail for another 10 kilometres (six miles) to find ice thick enough for the tourists to leave the boat and walk on the ice cap, as they had been promised.

The party also saw ivory gulls flying overhead, which ornithologists say is a first for the area.

Dr McCarthy, who is working on studies for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says has previously found the North Pole covered in some 3 metres (9 feet) of ice during the summer.

Shrinking

Despite the lack of agreement over whether the North Pole stretch of water was as a result of melting or ice movement, scientists do agree that the ice cap in general is shrinking.

Satellite studies have already suggested that the ice cover in the Arctic has thinned by more than 40% over the past 50 years.

Some scientists say it could disappear altogether by the end of the 21st century.

Campaigners want tougher controls on pollution to try to slow down the global warming which they say is causing the changes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_888000/888235.stm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 21, 2000