See a glacier spawn an iceberg in this dramatic video
The 4-mile-long iceberg made quite an exit.
Sea levels are rising and one of the culprits is the loss of ice from glaciers and ice sheets, victims of a warming planet.
A team of scientists from New York University caught a stunning sight on video when they witnessed an iceberg breaking away from a glacier.
The calving event happened June 22 at the Helheim Glacier in eastern Greenland. Denise Holland, a research team field manager with NYU, caught the eye-opening occurrence on video, which condenses 30 minutes of activity down to about 90 seconds.
There's an otherworldly quality to the footage, like you're watching a special-effects scene from beyond The Wall in Game of Thrones. One startling aspect of the video is the noticeable rise in sea level as the glacier chunk enters the ocean.
"Global sea-level rise is both undeniable and consequential," said NYU Abu Dhabi professor David Holland. "By capturing how it unfolds, we can see, first-hand, its breath-taking significance."
The 4-mile-long iceberg could have stretched from lower Manhattan all the way to Midtown in New York City.
Denise Holland says understanding how icebergs calve can help scientists create more accurate simulations for predicting the impact of climate change on sea-level rise.
NASA has been keeping an eye on Helheim Glacier for the past 20 years by measuring its ice losses over time. The space agency also caught sight of a large iceberg earlier this year that had not yet capsized.
From yesterday's #iceBridge flight: Helheim Glacier (left) recently calved a large iceberg (right) that has not capsized or overturned yet. pic.twitter.com/xT7rmgXGyu
— NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE) April 28, 2018
A new climate assessment released in June shows an increase in sea levels as ice in West Antarctica melts away. The Greenland glacier footage is a stark reminder of what's happening in the northern reaches of the globe as well.
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