New York University professor David Holland, an expert in atmospheric and ocean science, said it is “the largest event we’ve seen in over a decade in Greenland.” Holland and his wife, Denise, who is with the New York University’s environmental fluid dynamics laboratory happened to be at the right place, at the right time.
The Holland’s had been camping out by the Helheim Glacier for weeks to collect data to better project sea level changes. Denise Holland filmed the event on June 22. The Holland’s note that the calving actually took about 30 minutes.
However, Mr. Holland says the time-lapse video has been speeded up 20 times, but still shows quite clearly how “3 percent of the annual ice loss of Greenland occur in 30 minutes,” according to ABC News. “It sounded like rockets going off,” he said, describing it as “a very complex, chaotic, noisy event.”
Mr. Holland also adds that while he and his wife were studying in Greenland, “the real concern is in Antarctica, where everything is so big the stakes are much higher.”
Second large iceberg
Another large iceberg, this one in northwestern Greenland, has apparently grounded on the sea floor near the small village of Innaarsuit, with a population of 169 people.
There are fears the village could be flooded if and when the iceberg breaks apart. “We fear the iceberg could calve and send a flood towards the village,” Lina Davidsen, a security chief at the Greenland police, told Danish news agency Ritzau on Friday, according to USA Today.
“All the people in the danger area have been evacuated to a building that is further up in the village,” Davidsen said. “The evacuation happened only because the iceberg is so close to the village.”
Heavy rains are expected in the region on Saturday, and this could increase the chances for a major calving event and increase the danger for inhabitants of the village. Innaarsuit is located about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital and largest city.
