WASHINGTON (AFP) - A massive iceberg twice the size of Manhattan has broken off of a glacier in Greenland, according to NASA satellite imagery, in what could be the latest indication of global warming.
The images released Wednesday show the massive chunk of ice breaking off of the Petermann Glacier on the northwestern coast of Greenland. The glacier produced a similar ice island twice as large in 2010. NASA said the crack in the glacier had been visible since 2001, and that its polar-orbiting Aqua satellite had observed the break on July 16-17.
Oceanographer Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware said that while the icebergs seem large, most of the glacial melting takes place 600 meters (1,800 feet) below the surface.