Iceberg Twice the Size of Manhattan Splits From Greenland Glacier
Researchers suspect the massive ice break is due to rising ocean temperatures.
| Posted Wednesday, July 18, 2012, at 11:08 AM
Photograph by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.
An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke off of Greenland’s Petermann glacier earlier this week, the second major split in the glacier in recent years, prompting concern among climate experts, the Washington Post reports.
The 46-square-mile chunk of ice split on Monday from a section of the glacier that juts out into the ocean, the same part that calved an iceberg twice the size in August 2010. The abnormally frequent breaks in the glacier have scientists pointing to warming ocean temperatures.
"It’s dramatic. It’s disturbing," a researcher at the University of Delaware told the Associated Press. Although climate scientists can’t conclusively prove global warming is the culprit yet, they say the changes in the glacier are unprecedented. Petermann has now receded to a point it hasn’t been at in 150 years.
While global temperature averages are on the rise, the changing temperature is particularly notable in Arctic regions. Temperatures in northern Greenland and Canada are increasing at five times the rate of the global average.
NASA's got a photo of the Petermann glacier here.
