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Context for the Recent Massive Petermann Glacier Calving Event

  1. Kelly K. Falkner1,
  2. Humfrey Melling2,
  3. Andreas M. Münchow3,
  4. Jason E. Box4,
  5. Trudy Wohlleben5,
  6. Helen L. Johnson6,
  7. Preben Gudmandsen7,
  8. Roger Samelson8,
  9. Luke Copland9,
  10. Konrad Steffen10,
  11. Eric Rignot11,
  12. Anthony K. Higgins12

Article first published online: 5 APR 2011

DOI: 10.1029/2011EO140001

Issue

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Volume 92, Issue 14, pages 117–118, 5 April 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

Falkner, K. K., et al., (2011), Context for the Recent Massive Petermann Glacier Calving Event,Eos Trans. AGU, 92(14),117.

Author Information

  1. 1

    College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA

  2. 2

    Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada

  3. 3

    College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, University of Delaware, Newark, USA

  4. 4

    Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

  5. 5

    Canadian Ice Service, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  6. 6

    Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

  7. 7

    Danish National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

  8. 8

    Oregon State University,Corvallis, USA

  9. 9

    Department of Geography, University of Ottawa,Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  10. 10

    Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, Colo., USA

  11. 11

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

  12. 12

    Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland,Copenhagen, Denmark

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 5 APR 2011
  2. Article first published online: 5 APR 2011

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Keywords:

  • glacier;
  • calving;
  • Greenland;
  • ocean;
  • August 2010

[1] On 4 August 2010, about one fifth of the floating ice tongue of Petermann Glacier (also known as “Petermann Gletscher”) in northwestern Greenland calved (Figure 1). The resulting “ice island” had an area approximately 4 times that of Manhattan Island (about 253±17 square kilometers). The ice island garnered much attention from the media, politicians, and the public, who raised concerns about downstream implications for shipping, offshore oil and gas operations, and possible connections to Arctic and global warming. Does this event signal a change in the glacier's dynamics? Or can it be characterized as part of the glacier's natural variability? Understanding the known historical context of this event allows scientists and the public to judge its significance.

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