Ice island breaks off Greenland
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A satellite image taken Thursday shows the huge ice island
calved from Greenland’s Petermann glacier. Courtesy of Prof.
Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware. |
Bigger than Manhattan:
Christine Dell’Amore
New Petermann glacier collapse may be biggest in recorded.
An ice chunk four times the size of Manhattan has broken off of
Greenland’s Petermann glacier, possibly the biggest glacier collapse in
recorded history, scientists announced Friday.
The so-called “ice island” covers a hundred square miles (260 square
kilometers) and holds enough water to keep US public tap water flowing
for 120 days, according to Andreas Muenchow, a physical ocean scientist
and engineer at the University of Delaware.
As a result of the collapse, Petermann glacier, located about 620
miles (1,000 kilometers) south of the North Pole, lost about a quarter
of its 43-mile-long (70-kilometer-long) floating ice shelf, satellites
images taken Thursday show.
The new Greenland ice island is at least the second largest known
glacial breakaway, Muenchow said. National Geographic News |
