Researchers witness overnight breakup, retreat of Greenland glacier
Monday, July 12, 2010 - 16:14
in Earth & Climate
NASA-funded researchers monitoring Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier report that a 7 square kilometer (2.7 square mile) section of the glacier broke up on July 6 and 7, as shown in the image above. The calving front - where the ice sheet meets the ocean - retreated nearly 1.5 kilometers (a mile) in one day and is now further inland than at any time previously observed. The chunk of lost ice is roughly one-eighth the size of Manhattan Island, New York.