Nature & Environment
Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier That Sank the Titanic Smashes Own Speed Record
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Feb 04, 2014 03:38 AM EST
The Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, which sank the Titanic, has broken its previous record and is moving at four times the speed at which it moved during the 1990s.
The Jakobshavn glacier in the South-west of Greenland is one of the largest glaciers in Greenland and is rapidly retreating at the fastest speed ever recorded. Â The speed of the glacier in 2012 and 2013 was measured by researchers at the University of Washington and the German Space Agency. The study was done using satellite data to measure the glacier.
"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 author Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the UW's Polar Science Center.
The Jakobshavn Glacier is believed to have created the huge iceberg that sunk the Titanic in 1912. This retreating glacier dumps into the deep ocean on the west coast causing a rise in the sea levels.
The latest observations reveal that during the 2012 summer, the glacier arrived at a record speed of more than 10 miles per year or 150 feet per day. This is the fastest flow rate recorded for any glacier or ice stream in Greenland or Antarctica. The study was funded by NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
The scientists explain that the speed at which the glacier moves during the summer is short-lived as during the winters the speed of the flow gradually reduces. Despite this, there was a threefold increase in the average annual speed of the glacier in the last couple of years compared to its average annual speed in the 1990's. Â
 "We know that from 2000 to 2010 this glacier alone increased sea level by about 4/100 of an inch (1 mm). With the additional speed it likely will contribute a bit more than this over the next decade," Joughin said.
A latest study conducted by the University of Waterloo revealed that the due to the Arctic warming, there has been a drop in the icy season of the Arctic lakes by 24 days. Due to accelerated warming, the glaciers get smaller as they lose more mass and finally calve off further inland. This indicates that even if the glacier is on the move toward the coast carrying ice into the ocean, the calving front is actually retreating. It was seen that in 2012-2013, the Jakobshavn's front retreated more than 1 km each year compared to its location in the previous summers.
"As the glacier's calving front retreats into deeper regions, it loses ice - the ice in front that is holding back the flow - causing it to speed up," Joughin said.
It is the thinning and claving front of the glacier that is located in the deep region of the fjord that has triggered the record breaking speed. They estimate that by the end of this century, the calving front could retreat 50 kms from its current location.
 "The thing that's remarkable about the Jakobshavn Glacier is that even after all the mass that it has already lost, it is able to keep doing it, year after year," said co-author Benjamin Smith, a glaciologist at the UW's Polar Science Center. "A smaller glacier would settle down after losing that much mass. Jakobshavn's ability to drain ice from the ice sheet is really exceptional among all of the glaciers in Greenland."
The finding was reported in The Cryosphere.Â
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NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
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First Posted: Feb 04, 2014 03:38 AM EST
The Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, which sank the Titanic, has broken its previous record and is moving at four times the speed at which it moved during the 1990s.
The Jakobshavn glacier in the South-west of Greenland is one of the largest glaciers in Greenland and is rapidly retreating at the fastest speed ever recorded. Â The speed of the glacier in 2012 and 2013 was measured by researchers at the University of Washington and the German Space Agency. The study was done using satellite data to measure the glacier.
"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 author Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the UW's Polar Science Center.
The Jakobshavn Glacier is believed to have created the huge iceberg that sunk the Titanic in 1912. This retreating glacier dumps into the deep ocean on the west coast causing a rise in the sea levels.
The latest observations reveal that during the 2012 summer, the glacier arrived at a record speed of more than 10 miles per year or 150 feet per day. This is the fastest flow rate recorded for any glacier or ice stream in Greenland or Antarctica. The study was funded by NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
The scientists explain that the speed at which the glacier moves during the summer is short-lived as during the winters the speed of the flow gradually reduces. Despite this, there was a threefold increase in the average annual speed of the glacier in the last couple of years compared to its average annual speed in the 1990's. Â
 "We know that from 2000 to 2010 this glacier alone increased sea level by about 4/100 of an inch (1 mm). With the additional speed it likely will contribute a bit more than this over the next decade," Joughin said.
A latest study conducted by the University of Waterloo revealed that the due to the Arctic warming, there has been a drop in the icy season of the Arctic lakes by 24 days. Due to accelerated warming, the glaciers get smaller as they lose more mass and finally calve off further inland. This indicates that even if the glacier is on the move toward the coast carrying ice into the ocean, the calving front is actually retreating. It was seen that in 2012-2013, the Jakobshavn's front retreated more than 1 km each year compared to its location in the previous summers.
"As the glacier's calving front retreats into deeper regions, it loses ice - the ice in front that is holding back the flow - causing it to speed up," Joughin said.
It is the thinning and claving front of the glacier that is located in the deep region of the fjord that has triggered the record breaking speed. They estimate that by the end of this century, the calving front could retreat 50 kms from its current location.
 "The thing that's remarkable about the Jakobshavn Glacier is that even after all the mass that it has already lost, it is able to keep doing it, year after year," said co-author Benjamin Smith, a glaciologist at the UW's Polar Science Center. "A smaller glacier would settle down after losing that much mass. Jakobshavn's ability to drain ice from the ice sheet is really exceptional among all of the glaciers in Greenland."
The finding was reported in The Cryosphere.Â
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone