An ice "island" slightly larger than Manhattan broke off from an ice shelf in the Canadian coast two years ago and drifted south where it is now stuck in an inlet between two of the Queen Elizabeth islands. The giant ice cube is the largest piece to have broken off from a larger body of ice in 25 years and is feared to be an effect of global warming.

The ice island measures ten miles long and three miles across. Scientists have been tracking the island since it broke off the Ayles Ice Shelf (hence the name of the island: Ayles Ice Island). It was a concern that the island might drift west and wreak icy havoc on the oil and gas fields near Alaska in the Beaufort Sea. (Brings a whole new imagery to the whole "oil and water don't mix" maxim.)

From satellite pictures, the island is measured to have drifted 300 miles to get where it is now, stuck in the Canadian High Arctic. Scientists believe that this may be the safest thing to have happened to the island. Considering its size, it could really do a lot of damage. Until it drifts off again and melts off somewhere in the Atlantic, it remains to be a temporary fixture in the Arctic map.

Image from the Canadian Space Agency.