Giant Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland

 Greenland's Petermann Glacier, shown in 2009, where an ice island about 100 square miles broke off Aug. 5, researchers say. Satellite imagery reveals that Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 43-mile-long floating ice-shelf.

43-mile long

The block of ice separated from the Petermann Glacier, on the north-west coast of Greenland.

It is the largest Arctic iceberg to calve since 1962, said Prof Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware.

The ice could become frozen in place over winter or escape into the waters between Greenland and Canada.