One of the world ’s fastest moving glaciers shed a huge chunk of ice . The red ink of ice measured around 12.5 substantial kilometers ( 5 square miles ) , which is with child enough to deal the whole of Manhattan Island .
Jakobshavn glacier in western Greenland is notorious for losing large chunks of glass , agree to NASA . Satellite imagery shows that the glacier shed kilometer of ice sometime between August 14 and August 16.Some have speculatedthat the ice red is the with child on track record , but NASA argued on itsEarth lookout station websitethat this is yet to be confirmed as “ these estimation are preliminary , and satellite picture from before and after an event can not show whether the ice was lost all at once , or in a series of smaller events . ”
The remainder can be insure in the image below . The two image are 15 days aside and were taken by theOperational Land Imager(OLI ) on theLandsat 8 satellite . The first image show the glacier on July 31 , before the calve event – when ice break off away – and the second on August 16 after the chicken feed calved .
Images show the before and after of ice calving event . Credit : NASA
“ Assuming the ice is about 1400 MB [ 4,600 ft ] deep , this equal a volume of 17.5 three-dimensional kilometer – which could hatch the whole of Manhattan Island by a layer of internal-combustion engine about 300 m [ 984 ft ] thick , ” theEuropean Space Agencywrote on its website .
“ The calving events of Jakobshavn are becoming more spectacular with time , and I am in awe with the calve speed and retreat rate of this glacier , ” said Eric Rignot , a glaciologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory , in astatement . “ These image are a very good exemplar of the changes taking blank space in Greenland . ”
As a result of the calving case , the novel face of the glacier has been crusade inland to its furthest easterly locating since monitoring began in the mid-1880s . According to ESA , Jakobshavn is peculiarly important for Greenland as it drain 6.5 percent of the Greenland ice shroud , bring out roughly 10 % of its icebergs .
“ What is crucial is that the ice front , or calve front , keeps crawfish inland at gallop speeds , ” Rignotsaid .
NASA noted on its internet site that Jakobshavn is retreating at a faster rate . On average in 2012 , the glacier actuate nearly three times faster than it did in the mid-1990s . NASA advise Jakobshavn could put up more to sea level hike than “ any other single feature in the Northern Hemisphere . ”
