Greenland Loses 76 Sq Km Ice
Scientists track massive ice island's 3km/day drift after near-miss with Joe Island, amid warnings of more break-offs to come
A large ice island, roughly the size of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, broke off from Petermann Glacier in Greenland in August 2026. The ice island, which measured just over 76 square kilometers (29 square miles), was the largest to break from the glacier since the ice island of 2012, which measured 130 square kilometers (50 square miles).
The calving event was spotted by Adam Garbo, a doctoral student in glaciology at the University of Ottawa, using European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 mission imagery on August 4, 2026. Garbo and an international team of colleagues have been using remote sensing to study and track the glacier's ice tongue.
Petermann Glacier is one of Greenland's largest marine-terminating glaciers and acts as a gatekeeper for ice flowing from the ice sheet into the ocean. The glacier's future stability has implications for sea level rise, making it a closely monitored location for scientists.
The ice island drifted an average of 3 kilometers per day (1.9 miles per day) in the week after it calved. Two large rifts remained in Petermann Glacier's ice tongue as of late August 2026, expected to eventually produce new ice islands of roughly 94 square kilometers (36 square miles) and 84 square kilometers (32 square miles).
## Why it matters The calving event of summer 2026 is part of a routine process of iceberg calving, which is closely monitored by scientists for longer-term signs of instability. The ice island's movement and potential impact on sea level rise are being tracked by scientists, including glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nichols College, who used images from NASA–USGS Landsat satellites to monitor the iceberg as it drifted down Petermann Fjord toward Nares Strait.
The survival of the ice island after its run-in with Joe Island is a significant event, and scientists will continue to monitor its movement and potential impact on the environment. The ice island's size and movement make it a notable event in the study of glacier calving and its effects on sea level rise.
