• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Petermann Gletscher; glacier; Global warming; Ice Sheet; Petermann glacier; Petermann gletscher
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.690.7007; http://muenchow.cms.udel.edu/papers/2011EO140001.pdf

floating ice tongue of Petermann Glacier (also known as “Petermann Gletscher”) in north-western Greenland calved (Figure 1). The resulting “ice island ” had an area approxi-mately 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 char-acterized as part of the glacier’s natu-ral variability? Understanding the known historical context of this event allows scientists and the public to judge its significance. An Overview of Petermann Glacier Petermann Glacier is a major out-let that drains about 6 % of the Green-land Ice Sheet area. It is one of four such major outlet glaciers surrounding Green-land that are grounded substantially (500 meters) below sea level and one of two that retain significant floating ice tongues. The Petermann ice tongue feeds into a high- walled fjord, 15–20 kilometers wide and about 80 kilometers in length. The main flow of ice that crosses the ground-ing line is augmented by smaller inflow glaciers descending along the sides of the fjord (Figure 1; see also Figure S1 in the online supplement to this Eos issue