A Greenland Glacier Loses Another Chunk of Ice

A 76 sq km chunk of ice broke off from the Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, as shown in a Copernicus Sentinel-1 image. This is the glacier’s largest loss of floating ice since 2012 and the most significant calving event in the Arctic since 2020. The satellite image shows the ice tongue, which acted as a plug that slowed the flow of glacier ice into the ocean. The ice will eventually drift, melt, and break apart, and scientists will monitor it to study how such a vast ice mass drifts, evolves, and breaks apart. The calving event is part of a broader trend of ice loss in Greenland, where snowfall reconstitutes the glaciers at their upper elevations, and the balance between snowfall and calving is increasingly askew.

• The ice tongue beyond the grounding line slowed the movement of glacier ice into the ocean.
• The ice will eventually drift, melt, and break apart, and scientists will monitor it to study how such a vast ice mass drifts, evolves, and breaks apart.
• The calving event is part of a broader trend of ice loss in Greenland, where snowfall reconstitutes the glaciers at their upper elevations, and the balance between snowfall and calving is increasingly askew.

The calving event is significant because it is the largest loss of floating ice since 2012 and the most significant calving event in the Arctic since 2020. The ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite is used to monitor ice loss in Greenland, and the image shows the ice tongue, which acted as a plug that slowed the flow of glacier ice into the ocean. The ice will eventually drift, melt, and break apart, and scientists will monitor it to study how such a vast ice mass drifts, evolves, and breaks apart. The calving event is part of a broader trend of ice loss in Greenland, where snowfall reconstitutes the glaciers at their upper elevations, and the balance between snowfall and calving is increasingly askew.

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