Greenland's glaciers continue to break up at alarming rate

by Rich Bowden - Aug 21 2008, 02:57

Scientists monitoring Greenland's glaciers through satellite images have said they expect the ice shelves to continue to break up at an increasing rate.

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered break-ups in two of the largest glaciers this month, according to a news release.

A large 11-square-mile (29-square-kilometer) piece of the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland, equivalent to half the size of Manhattan Island, broke away between July 10 and July 24. The researchers are also monitoring the northern branch of the enormous Jakobshavn glacier, which has also shown signs of breaking up.

The team, led by Jason Box, an associate professor of geography at Ohio State, and his graduate student colleagues Russell Benson and David Decker, with the Byrd Polar Research Centre, have speculated that a massive crack further back up the Petermann glacier could result in yet more breaks.

“If the Petermann glacier breaks up back to the upstream rift, the loss would be as much as 60 square miles (160 square kilometers),” said Box, which would result in the loss of one-third of the ice field.

The scientists are using time lapse images supplied by NASA satellites, which are updated daily to monitor the breakages. The team expects that part of the northern hemisphere's largest floating glacier may continue to disappear within the next year.

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