That means the glacier is now flowing more slowly and is no longer retreating inland. Harry Cockburn at The Independent reports that between 20 the Jakobshavn Glacier alone contributed 1 millimeter to sea level rise.īut a funny thing began occurring in 2013: the Jakobshavn’s ice front stopped thinning and instead began thickening and the trend continued through 2017, according to the European Space Agency, which monitors the glacier with various satellites as part of its Climate Change Initiative. The glacier, which spills into Disko Bay, is one of the major pathways for ice from Greenland’s ice sheet-the largest in the world behind Antarctica-to enter the ocean and cause sea level rise. Satellite data showed that the front end of the massive ice river retreated by about 66 feet per year during that time. But new satellite data shows that oddly, the Jakobshavn Glacier has actually grown thicker in recent years, after decades of discharging tons of ice into the ocean.ĭuring the 2000s, the Jakobshavn was the fastest flowing glacier on Greenland, moving at about 10.5 miles per year, reports the BBC’s Jonathan Amos. Today, Earth’s glaciers are in retreat, shedding many such bergs into the ocean and triggering sea level rise.
In the year 1912, an iceberg, which likely calved off of the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, floated into the path of the Titanic, leading to the 'unsinkable' ship's tragic demise.
