July 19, 2012 A CHUNK of ice twice the size of Manhattan has
parted from Greenland’s Petermann glacier, a break researchers
at the University of Delaware and Canadian Ice Service
attributed to warmer ocean temperatures. The separation along
Greenland’s north-west coast on Monday is the second major
calving for the glacier in three years. In August 2010 it lost
an area of abouty 250 square kilometres, compared with the
120square kilometres that split off this week. Andreas Muenchow,
an associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering
at the University of Delaware, said the glacier’s end point was
now at ‘‘a location where it has not been for at least 150
years’’. ‘‘The Greenland ice sheet is changing rapidly before
our eyes,’’ Professor Muenchow said. He also said while ‘‘no
individual glacier will be the canary in the coalmine’’, recent
warming had transformed the overall ice sheet. ‘‘The Greenland
ice sheet is being reduced not just in size, but in volume,’’ he
said. ‘‘The big and broader climat