Record high temperature have led to the closing of a major national park in Canada's Arctic after flooding forced the evacuation of tourists, an official said Friday.
Auyuittuq National Park covers more than 7,300 square miles on Baffin Island and is dominated by the giant Penny ice cap. The park is popular with hikers and skiers.
The combination of floods, melting permafrost and erosion means the southern part of the park will remain shut until geologists can examine the damage, said Pauline Scott, a spokeswoman for Parks Canada
"We've lost huge proportions of what was formerly the trail in the park. It's disappeared — gone," Scott said by phone from Iqaluit, capital of the Arctic territory of Nunavut.
The problems started last month with two weeks of record temperatures on Baffin Island that reached as high as 81 Fahrenheit, well above the July average of 54 F.
Scott said the temperature triggered massive melting that sent "a huge pulse of water through the park," washing away 37 miles of a trail used by hikers and destroying a bridge over a river that is otherwise impassable.
Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that many experts say is linked to climate change.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article