An ice island four times the size of Manhattan broke off from
one of Greenland's two main glaciers, scientists said Friday, in
the biggest such event in the Arctic in nearly 50 years. The new
ice island, which broke off on Thursday, will enter a remote
place called the Nares Strait, about 620 miles south of the
North Pole between Greenland and Canada. The ice island has an
area of 100 square miles and a thickness up to half the height
of the Empire State Building, said Andreas Muenchow, professor
of ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware.
Muenchow said he had expected an ice chunk to break off from the
Petermann Glacier, one of the two largest remaining ones in
Greenland, because it had been growing in size for seven or
eight years. But he did not expect it to be so large. "The
freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or
Hudson Rivers flowing for more than two years," said Muenchow,
whose research in the area is supported by the National Science
Foundation. "It could a