Bongkahan es raksasa sebesar 260 kilometer per segi terlepas dari gletser Petermann di pantai barat laut Greenland. Demikian yang dikatakan para peneliti universitas di Amerika Serikat, Kamis (12/8).
"Pecahan itu merupakan gunung es Arktik terbesar yang pecah sejak tahun 1962," jelas Andreas Muenchow dari University of Delaware. "Es itu kemungkinan akan membeku selama musim dingin atau mengapung ke perairan antara Greenland dan Kanada. Jika bongkahan es bergerak ke selatan akan membahayakan pelayaran."
Retakan di gletser Petermann telah diamati sejak tahun lalu dan sudah diperkirakan bongkahan es itu akan lepas. Gletser ini berada di 1.000 kilometer selatan Kutub Utara.
Seorang peneliti di Kanada mendeteksi gambar lepasnya pecahan itu dengan menggunakan satelit NASA, Kamis pagi. Gambar itu memperlihatkan gletser Petermann kehilangan sekitar seperempat lapisan es yang mengambang sepangjang 70 kilometer.
"Belum jelas, apakah hal ini terjadi akibat pemanasan global," katanya.
Greenland adalah sebuah pulau di Samudra Atlantik bagian utara di arah timur laut Kanada. Luas wilayahnya adalah 2.166.086 kilometer per segi dan merupakan pulau terbesar di dunia.
Greenland Glacier Ice Giant Island
An area of 260 km2 ice island, five times the size of Central Jakarta, which is separated from the Petermann Glacier, Greenland, across the Arctic Ocean, on Wednesday (08/11/2010). Imaginable, if all of Greenland's ice melted, could raise the world's six feet of water surface. North Jakarta could be submerged if the sea level rose 2-3 meters.
Ice island was "swimming" in the Arctic Ocean was about to enter a remote place called nares Strait, about 620 km south of the Arctic, which separates Greenland and Island Ellsemere, Canada. In the worst scenario, a giant chunk of ice could have traveled to reach the waters where the vessel similar to the Greenland ice shelf in 1912 destroyed the Titanic.
"The island's ice is so great that it is impossible to stop it," said Hon-Methie Ove Hagen, glasiologis from the University of Oslo.
If the island of ice as thick as the Empire State Building in New York is entering the Strait of nares before the winter freeze (next month), vessel traffic in the vicinity of Canada will be disturbed. And, if the giant chunks of ice flowing into the south due flows driven, and reached the east coast of Canada, the busy waters, sending oil from Newfoundland will be disrupted.
Ice island was very dangerous for the Grand Banks oil platforms off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. "From where could be the starting point major disaster," said Mark Drinkwater of the European Space Agency.
Thrust of the ice island was very strong, can sweep offshore oil platforms and ships are there in front of him. The resulting collision can cause severe damage. If the ice melts, the potential to raise global sea levels as high as 20 feet or 6 meters!
Ice islands were first seen via satellite by a fortune-teller ice from Canada, Tudy Wohllenben, Thursday (08/05/2010). Discharge of fresh water when the ice melts could supply the water needs for all people in the United States for 120 days or four months.
Canadian Ice Service estimates, the rate of ice chunks that takes one or two years to reach the east coast of Canada. Possibilities will also be broken into small pieces due to hit an iceberg, and coral islands. Chunks of it will also collapse or melt due to wind and waves. "But chunks of the fractions were quite large," said Trudy Wohllenben.
Reuters reported, the release event of ice from glaciers Petermann Island, North Pole, this is the greatest natural phenomena in the past 28 years. Last occurred in 1962 when the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, Greendland, forming an island.
United States scientists say, it is difficult to claim that a giant ice shelf collapse due to global warming because the record of sea water around the glaciers were stored since 2003. Sea water flow under the glacier became the main cause of the loss of ice from Petermann Island, Greenland.
Natural phenomena or natural events that occur at the same time worried mebuat human fear the world will collapse, even though they realize this world is not the place for that will stand upright and intact, someday be destroyed and perish.
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