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Event Details
Glacier Melting event report
| Category: | Glacier Melting |
| Observation: | 18.07.2012 |
| Continent: | North Pole |
| Country: | Greenland |
| State: | |
| Area: | Petermann Glacier |
| Location: | Nares Strait |
| Severity: | Hight |
| Event details | |
| A huge iceberg about the size of Manhattan broke away from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland Monday. Scientists blame global warming or climate change and rises in ocean temperatures as reasons the massive iceberg broke away. Monday, Discovery News reported that the large floating ice island was observed breaking along a crack in its structure July 16. Scientists have been watching the separation since last autumn and predicted a break when the summer months arrived. The giant iceberg dwarfs Manhattan in size and is about 46 square miles. It was birthed or "calved" from the Petermann Glacier, a prominent sheet of ice in Greenland, characterized by rocky thin shelves. The broken piece of floating ice is not the largest on record. In fact, an enormous ice chunk broke away from Petermann two years ago. That iceberg in Greenland was four times the size of Manhattan. Before that, the last time the Arctic area birthed a bed of ice was in 1962. A scientist with Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center said this about Monday's iceberg separation in Greenland: "We can see the crack widening in the past year through satellite pictures, so it seems imminent." Byrd, like other scientists, say Monday's events are part of a cycle. However, what concerns them is when things speed up. Many believe the rapid rise in ocean temperatures brought on by global warming or climate changes, has something to do with accelerated separations of ice sheets. When an iceberg the size of Manhattan breaks away, ocean levels rise. Obviously, this presents a flood threat to coastal populated cities like New York. At this time, there does not appear to be an immediate threat, but the thought of it is unsettling. | |
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