Glacier Blamed For Sinking Titanic Pushing More Ice Into Ocean
Glacier Blamed For Sinking Titanic Pushing More Ice Into Ocean
by Richard Harris
February 03, 2014 5:03 PM
The glacier that's blamed for producing the iceberg that sunk the Titanic has been pushing much more ice into the ocean over the past two years, according to a new study published on Monday.
Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier is essentially a river of ice, which floats in a narrow valley. Over the past decade, it has been flowing faster toward the sea. And that rate has increased rapidly over the past two summers, apparently because the front of the glacier is now sitting in deep water, so there's not much holding it back.
As the glacier crumbles into the sea, the ice has been surging forward at the rate of 150 feet per day, according to a study published in the journal, The Cryosphere.
That makes Jakobshavn by far the fastest moving major glacier in the world, according to Ian Joughin at the University of Washington. Other Greenland glaciers have also started to flow a bit faster in recent years.
More:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/03/271148468/iceberg-blamed-for-sinking-titanic-pushing-more-ice-into-ocean
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