Petermann Glacier Develops New Cracks as 75% of Its Ice Loss Comes From Basal Melting
Updated
Updated · Daily News Egypt · Aug 17
Petermann Glacier Develops New Cracks as 75% of Its Ice Loss Comes From Basal Melting
3 articles · Updated · Daily News Egypt · Aug 17
Summary
March 2026 radar images show new fractures across Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, including one spanning its width, raising the risk that another section of its floating ice tongue could break away.
Science Advances says warm Atlantic water melting the glacier from below drives about 75% of recent mass loss, versus roughly 20% from surface melt and 5% from iceberg calving.
Melting is concentrated near the grounding zone, averaging about 60 meters a year and topping 100 meters at some margins, where deep channels under the floating tongue focus ocean heat.
Petermann has already lost about 40 kilometers of its floating tongue—roughly 40% of its area—in two decades; another break could push its front to the farthest inland position since 1923.
The glacier still would not be near immediate collapse, but retreat would leave the ice front less than 40 kilometers from the grounding zone, edging toward a threshold where inland ice flow could accelerate and add to sea-level rise.
As a massive crack threatens Greenland's Petermann Glacier in 2026, could hidden ocean currents trigger catastrophic global sea-level rise sooner than predicted?
Can cutting-edge marine robots map the hidden warm waters beneath Greenland before the next colossal fracture releases a torrent of inland ice?