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The 113-square-kilometer (43-square-mile) block broke away from the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier in northeast Greenland, which scientists say was expected due to rising average temperatures.
This image was taken on July 13, 2018, and shows an iceberg behind houses and buildings after it landed outside the village of Innarsuit, an island settlement in the Northwest Greenland township of Avannaata. Image: AFP.
COPENHAGEN – A huge chunk of ice, bigger than the city of Paris, has broken off the Arctic’s largest ice shelf due to warmer temperatures in Greenland, scientists said Monday.
The 113-square-kilometer (43-square-mile) block broke away from the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier in northeast Greenland, which scientists say was expected due to rising average temperatures.
“We are seeing increasing velocity on this larger remaining ice shelf,” Jason Box, professor of glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), told AFP.
GEUS also released satellite images showing the parts of the glacier that had broken away.
While it’s normal for chunks of ice to break off a glacier, a process called chipping, they are generally not that big.
According to GEUS, since 1999, the glacier has lost 160 square kilometers of ice, an area twice the size of Manhattan, and the rate of loss accelerated in the past two years.
“If we see warmer summers like those seen in the last two years, it will contribute more to the accelerated rise in sea levels around the world,” Box said.
The melting of the Greenland ice sheet contributed to a 1.1 centimeter rise in sea level between 1992 and 2018, according to a study published in the scientific journal Nature in December.
A more recent study from the University of Lincoln in England predicted thaw in Greenland could raise sea levels by 10 to 12 centimeters by 2100.
Average temperatures in the region have risen by about three degrees Celsius since 1980 and are expected to reach record levels in 2020.
According to Jenny Turton, a researcher at the Friedrich-Alexander Erlangen-Nurnberg University in Germany, the heat waves of recent years have accelerated the thaw.
“Every summer, water runs off the Greenland ice sheet onto the glacier tongue, forming rivers and ponds on the surface. Refreezing the water in winter creates additional pressure on the floating tongue, which can lead to deliveries, “Turston said. in a statement published by GEUS.
The researchers said the development mirrored that of a neighboring glacier, the Zachariae, which collapsed into the ocean in 2015, prompting an increase in calvings as both the ocean and the air warmed.
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