New Ice Island Claves off of Petermann Glacier in Greenland
10.08.2010 - Ice & Snow, Arctic
On August 5th, Petermann Glacier, which terminates on the coast of West Greenland, lost about one-quarter of its ice-shelf, producing a 70 kilometre-long iceberg. The glacier is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland for which its extremity terminates in floating ice shelves, connecting the Greenland Ice Sheet directly with the ocean.
The iceberg, which was discovered by NASA's MODIS-Aqua satellite, will now enter Nares Strait between northern Greenland and Canada. There, it could either run into small islands and get stuck, blocking the channel, or break up under the influence of the prevailing ocean currents. Smaller iceberg pieces would then follow the coasts off Baffin Island and Labrador before reaching the North Atlantic.
The last event of this magnitude occurred in 1962, when a 622 square kilometre ice island calved off of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. The Petermann Glacier has already experienced significant calving events in 2001 and 2008; however they only produced smaller icebergs.
