Ayles Ice Shelf

[3] On August 13, 2005, the entire shelf broke clear from the coast of Ellesmere, forming a new ice island.

[6][7][8] Within days of the breakup, the former shelf had drifted over 50 km (31 mi) from Ellesmere Island before freezing into the sea ice for the winter.

[9] The freed segment of the ice shelf, known as Ayles Ice Island, drifted southwesterly for two years, and in January 2007 accelerated into the open Arctic Ocean, causing concern for oil rig operators in the Beaufort Sea north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

Although scientists initially thought it was likely to remain there for some time, possibly permanently,[10] it soon afterwards broke into two parts and resumed movement.

Over the following three years, it travelled around 2,400 km (1,500 mi) along the Beaufort Eddy, a slow-moving ocean current that flows eastward across the North Pole, then back west along the coast.

It is not known how long prior T-1, T-2, and T-3 had been formed, but it is believed they had calved from ice shelves on northern Ellesmere Island.

Before: Ellesmere Island on July 12, 2002.
After: A NASA satellite image taken August 13, 2005, shows the collapse. The newly formed ice island forms only a small part of this picture, being the fragment very close to shore at the centre of the image. The island is ringed in the picture shown in this CBC article .