Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumJabkobshavn Glacier (Greenland) Hits Record Speed Of 10 Miles/Year; Up 4X From 1990s
The massive Arctic glacier believed to be responsible for calving the iceberg that sunk the Titanic is moving from the Greenland ice sheet and into the ocean at record speeds, according to a study in the journal The Cryosphere.
Jakobshavn Glacier is moving at a speed that appears the be the fastest ever recorded, researchers from the University of Washington and the German Space Agency (DLR) report.
"We are now seeing summer speeds more than four times what they were in the 1990s on a glacier which at that time was believed to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, glacier in Greenland," said lead study author Ian Joughin, a researcher at the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington. Joughin and his team studied the glacier in 2012 and 2013, measuring dramatic speeds. In just one year it traveled more than 17 kilometers (10.5 miles), averaging a pace of 46 meters (151 feet) per day, a speed the researchers said is the fastest ever recorded for any glacier or ice stream in Greenland or Antarctica.
In the winter months the glacier's pace slows, but over the years, the quick-flowing summer pace of the Jakobshavn Glacier adds up. The glacier's average annual speed across the last few years is markedly faster than it was when the glacier's speeds were recorded in the 1990s.
EDIT
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/5858/20140203/greenlands-jakobshavn-glacier-moving-10-miles-per-year-recording-breaking.htm
NickB79
(19,297 posts)Only now it's firmly in the rear view mirror.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)Holy shit
Bill USA
(6,436 posts)his cousin: " We got all kinds of time to do sumthin' about global Warming. No rush."