The major news organizations are reporting that the Ayles Canadian ice shelf has broken free of Ellesmere Island in the Arctic, creating an island of floating ice that reaches up to 15 kilometers by five kilometers wide. Oil platforms, boats, and other aquatic inhabitants in the region are said to be threatened by the floating ice. But before you totally flip out, please note that the break happened over a year ago. From the CBC:

"The collapse of the Ayles shelf — one of six that still existed in Canada — occurred 16 months ago, on Aug. 13, 2005, but because it is so remote, no one saw it.

Scientists have been combining seismic and satellite data to determine what happened and are now releasing details of the collapse.

The researchers suspect climate change may have played a role in the collapse but said they cannot definitively say it is a result of global warming."