ILULISSAT ISFJORD, GREENLAND
June 7, 2007
A helicopter flying past a half-mile-wide section of the Ilulissat Glacier calving face gives perspective on the staggering immensity of this ice wall (in some places it may be 70 stories tall). This four-mile-wide (6.4 km.) glacier discharges more ice into the global ocean than any other glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. During the past ten years, its flow rate has doubled, apparently in response to warming temperatures and more meltwater lubrication at its base. It now sends 11 cubic miles of ice out to sea. According to local lore, the iceberg that sank the Titanic came from this glacier.
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