Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Greenland iceberg heads for Canada?
Posted on22 July 2010.
A huge chunk of ice measuring seven-square kilometres has broken off a glacier in Greenland, prompting fears that the block will drift into Canadian waters and disrupt shipping. The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier moved a mile inland in just one day, with all the action caught on monitored satellites by NASA-funded researchers.
The iceberg, originally about an eighth of the size of Manhattan Island in New York, split from the glacier overnight between July 6 and 7. It has since broken into smaller chunks which experts fear could drift into shipping lanes in Canada?s eastern and Arctic waters over the next year.
Canadian coast guards are confident, however, that commercial ships will be able to avoid any ice chunks in Canadian waters. ?We provide them with all possible information, so they are aware of everything and they have all the information they need,? said Jean-Pierre Lenhert, the commanding officer at the Iqaluit Coast Guard Station, in a report by CBC News. ?We do have an aeroplane that is flying all the time, you know, and looking at the ice conditions, so we can provide the vessel with the recommended ice route.?
Jakobshavn Isbrae, located on Greenland?s west coast, has retreated more than 27 miles since 1850 and is now at its furthest level inland. The glacier is thought to be the single largest contributor to the rise in sea levels in the northern hemisphere.
?This event is unusual because it occurs on the heels of a warm winter that saw no sea ice form in the surrounding bay,? Thomas Wagner, cryospheric program scientist at NASA Headquarters, said in a release.
?While the exact relationship between these events is being determined, it lends credence to the theory that warming of the oceans is responsible for the ice loss observed throughout Greenland and Antarctica.?
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/07/22/greenland-iceberg-heads-for-canada/
Posted on22 July 2010.
A huge chunk of ice measuring seven-square kilometres has broken off a glacier in Greenland, prompting fears that the block will drift into Canadian waters and disrupt shipping. The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier moved a mile inland in just one day, with all the action caught on monitored satellites by NASA-funded researchers.
The iceberg, originally about an eighth of the size of Manhattan Island in New York, split from the glacier overnight between July 6 and 7. It has since broken into smaller chunks which experts fear could drift into shipping lanes in Canada?s eastern and Arctic waters over the next year.
Canadian coast guards are confident, however, that commercial ships will be able to avoid any ice chunks in Canadian waters. ?We provide them with all possible information, so they are aware of everything and they have all the information they need,? said Jean-Pierre Lenhert, the commanding officer at the Iqaluit Coast Guard Station, in a report by CBC News. ?We do have an aeroplane that is flying all the time, you know, and looking at the ice conditions, so we can provide the vessel with the recommended ice route.?
Jakobshavn Isbrae, located on Greenland?s west coast, has retreated more than 27 miles since 1850 and is now at its furthest level inland. The glacier is thought to be the single largest contributor to the rise in sea levels in the northern hemisphere.
?This event is unusual because it occurs on the heels of a warm winter that saw no sea ice form in the surrounding bay,? Thomas Wagner, cryospheric program scientist at NASA Headquarters, said in a release.
?While the exact relationship between these events is being determined, it lends credence to the theory that warming of the oceans is responsible for the ice loss observed throughout Greenland and Antarctica.?
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/07/22/greenland-iceberg-heads-for-canada/