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This history was updated Oct. 4 , 2018 at 1:40 p.m. EDT .
A colossal iceberg four and a half times the size of Manhattan has broken off the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica , mark the 2d time the glacier has have young a elephantine iceberg in just two yr , accord to news reports .
The Pine Island Glacier is located in West Antarctica. It flows into Pine Island Bay, by the Amundsen Sea.
On Saturday ( Sept. 23 ) , Stef Lhermitte , a orbiter notice specialiser at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands , saw a planet image show that the glacier had fall back an enormous ball of ice . Heposted the news on Twitter , say , " dampen news from Pine Island Glacier , which lost 267km2 [ 103 square mi ] of iceberg today , after the internal crack resulted in a orotund calving result . "
The event is a major one , enounce Peter Neff , a glaciologist and terra firma scientist at the University of Rochester in New York . " [ It ’s ] not unprecedented , but this glacier is concerning for next sea storey hike , " Neffposted on Twitteron Sunday . [ Photo Gallery : Antarctica ’s Pine Island Glacier Cracks ]
Of all the glacier in West Antarctica , the Pine Island Glacier is the large contributor of ice to the ocean . Each year , it lose 45 billion tons ( 40.8 billion metrical lashings ) of icing , causing ocean story to increase 0.03 inches ( 1 millimeter ) every eight age , according to The Washington Post . If the entire glacier melted , sea levels could climb 1.7 feet ( 0.5 m ) , The Washington Post reported .
The Pine Island Glacier has a long history of calving iceberg , but these events have been fall out more frequently in recent meter , said Seongsu Jeong , a postdoctoral researcher at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University .
Jeong noted that the glacier calved iceberg in January 2001 , November 2007 , December 2011 , August 2015 and September 2017 . " In terms of relative frequency , it ’s happen more than before , " Jeong told Live Science .
In a 2016 written report publish in thejournal Geophysical Research Letters , Jeong and his colleagues find that the sea beneath the border of the glacier — that is , where the glacier margin Pine Island Bay — is warming the ice and causing it to crack .
In the past , the Pine Island Glacier has broken at one side , and that crack traveled to the other side , lead to a calved iceberg , Jeong read . However , he and his colleagues discovered that the nearly 225 - square - mile ( 582 square kilometre ) iceberg lettuce that broke off in 2015 started most 20 miles ( 32 kilometre ) inland in 2013 . This week ’s calving event also appear to have started in themiddle of the glacier , Jeong enounce .
This " inside out " melting may be happen because human - caused clime alteration is warming the oceans , or because of increase ocean flow progress to the bottom of the ice shelf where the glacier rests , Jeong say .
These have young events have consequences , Jeong added . iceberg lettuce float , so they wo n’t get sea levels to move up unless the water system within them melts , he tell . However , the bound of glacier help keep the rest of the glacier from thawing , like " debris clog the drain , " Jeong order . As these edges wear off away , the rest of the glacier is more potential tomelt into the sea , he said .
" It ’s generally accepted that it ’s no longer a doubt of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt , it ’s a question of when , " Ian Howat , an associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State , who wrote the 2015 study with Jeong , said in a statementlast year . " This variety of rifting behaviour cater another mechanics for rapid retreat of these glaciers , add together to the chance that we may see significant flop of West Antarctica in our lifetimes . "
After separating from the glacier , the Pine Island berg broke apart into several more pieces , satellite images showed . " # Sentinel1 ( 23/9 vs. 21/9 ) shows the Pine Island glacier calving clearly and seems to suggest that the iceberg is falling in pieces 2 / n , " Lhermitte posted on Twitter .
The Pine Island Glacier is n’t the only icy body that birthed a glacier this year . In July , the Larsen C glass ledge in Antarctica calved an berg the size of it of Delaware , Live Science previously describe .
Original article onLive skill .
