There is a region of the planet that is especially prolific in ice masses. It is an area on the west coast of Greenland, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle , where the Ilulissat icefjord opens, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2004.
At the point where the fjord – which measures more than 40 km long and 11 km wide – reaches the open sea is the homonymous town, which with 4,500 inhabitants is the third Greenlandic human settlement and is known as the world capital of the icebergs . Nearby is the Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier, considered the most productive in the northern hemisphere, with 20,000 million tons of ice per year.
Most icebergs form in summer , when glacier masses, which can exceed 700 m in height, begin to lose weight and move towards the sea. Some are too big to leave the fjord and get stuck for years , until other ice masses push, press, and break them into smaller pieces heading for the Atlantic Ocean.
The most massive ones don’t melt until they reach 40 degrees north , at the approximate latitude of New York City. Jakobshavn Isbrae is the fastest glacier in Greenland: NASA researchers observed a breakthrough through satellite images between 2001 and 2003, at a rate of 12,600 m per year.
Another study in 2006 from the University of Dresden in Germany found that speed continued to increase. The phenomenon translates into an increase in the amount of ice displaced from the continent to the ocean and, therefore, in the production of icebergs, while glaciers lose volume due to global warming .
Image: National Ocean Service Image Gallery
