Iceberg twice size of Manhattan tore off one of Greenland's largest glaciers

For several years, scientists had been watching a long crack near the tip of the northerly Petermann Glacier. On Monday, NASA satellites showed it had broken completely, freeing an iceberg measuring 46 square miles.

A massive ice sheet covers about four-fifths of Greenland. Petermann Glacier is mostly on land, but a segment sticks out over water like a frozen tongue, and that's where the break occurred.



The same glacier spawned an iceberg twice that size two years ago. Together, the breaks made a large change that's got the attention of researchers.

"It's dramatic. It's disturbing," said University of Delaware professor Andreas Muenchow, who was one of the first researchers to notice the break. "We have data for 150 years and we see changes that we have not seen before."

"It's one of the manifestations that Greenland is changing very fast," he said.

Researchers suspect global warming is to blame, but can't prove it conclusively yet. Glaciers do calve icebergs naturally, but what's happened in the last three years to Petermann is unprecedented, Muenchow and other scientists say.

"This is not part of natural variations anymore," said NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot, who camped on Petermann 10 years ago.
Ohio State University ice scientist Ian Howat said there is still a chance it could be normal calving, like losing a fingernail that has grown too long, but any further loss would show it's not natural: "We're still in the phase of scratching our heads and figuring out how big a deal this really is."

Many of Greenland's southern glaciers have been melting at an unusually rapid pace. The Petermann break brings large ice loss much farther north than in the past, said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

If it continues, and more of the Petermann is lost, the melting would push up sea levels, he said. The ice lost so far was already floating, so the breaks don't add to global sea levels.

Northern Greenland and Canada have been warming five times faster than the average global temperature, Muenchow said. Temperatures have increased there by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 30 years, Scambos said.

The new iceberg is likely to follow the path of the one in 2010, Muenchow said. That broke apart into smaller icebergs headed north, then west and last year started landing in Newfoundland, he said.

It's more than glaciers in Greenland that are melting. Scientists also reported this week that the Arctic had the largest sea ice loss on record for June.

Link and more Images

reply to post by grindhouzer

www.spiegel.de...

here is a interactive picture. just move the screen split with the mouse pointer.
on the left is from july 8th, right is july 12th. the more redish, the more melting.

As an Environmental Chemist (BS Chem/Biology double major '84 and later a lab instructor for a year). I am currently working in the field of pollution remediation with meteorologists. I can say the meteorologists and fellow scientist I work with are feeling the affects we are seeing are reactions from the unusual activity of the Sun!
Why you might ask we feel that way? Geothermal activity is on the rise. We have seen evidence in the last few years showing that new undersea volcano's are being found while the above sea level volcano's are also rumbling. And when we were students there were direct correlations being taught about activity on the surface of the Sun being played out in our atmosphere and inner earth geological mechanisms.

Seems to me that the facts are being distorted for the purpose of ushering in a one world government to control everything and everyone possible. Meanwhile children starve and people suffer as we begin paying good money for fuel and energy while the powers that be continue to ignore the people who are doing real work in alternative sources. Some are driving cars using easily obtainable, on demand, H2 from water. Middle TN State U built one 20+ years ago, still drive it, but a Japanese company is going to sell them in Asia and NOT HERE! Al Gore knows about it, he taught at that college and what does he do about it? NADA damn thing at all. Liars using propaganda to promote an agenda that appears to take money from middle and lower class society so a select few can rule over us all is my take on this.

Criminal if true, but I believe the solar panel ideas would work but the crooks taking gov money to build the plants are lining their pockets, declaring bankruptcy and probably donating huge sums back to the Democrats. Folks we are being fleeced over a lie. Magnets do work while sitting on a desk but this is largely ignored too. And I think there are flywheel concepts that could augment any energy device to be more efficient. Many ideas appear to be held back that I think could work like the Joseph Newman Device that good ole Paul Harvey told us about in the 70's. That device uses an electromagnet and Physicist employed by places like NASA support the mans invention as working. Please, learn about the truth before we are enslaved by the lies being told in the media.