A new 25-square-mile island

An enormous ice shelf broke away from Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic last year, researchers said, warning it could be another symptom of global warming.

The 66-square-kilometer (25.5-square-mile) ice island tore away from Ellesmere, a huge strip of land in the Canadian Arctic close to Greenland.

The break was so violent that it caused tremors that were detected by Canadian seismographs 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, but no one was able to pinpoint what had happened until now.

"In the past, we looked to climate change and thought perhaps ice shelves ... would just melt apart by losing a little piece day by day, but it now seems that when you reach some kind of threshold, when you reach that level, the whole thing just breaks apart," geographer Luke Copland told the National Post. Eerie.