Petermann Ice Island updates

On August 5, 2010 monitoring by Environment Canada's Canadian Ice Service (CIS) revealed that a large section of the Petermann Glacier terminus (a large glacier in Northwest Greenland) had "calved" (i.e. fractured) off, creating a large "ice island" (i.e. a large tabular iceberg). The original ice island subsequently fractured with the largest piece being 280 km² in size. This ice island is much larger than the 2008 Petermann Ice Island, which was 27 km² in area at the time of its calving. In the past, ice islands from the Petermann Glacier have taken a year to get to southern Baffin Bay, breaking up into smaller pieces along the way to northern Labrador. The smaller pieces could take another year to reach Newfoundland waters. CIS will continue to monitor the ice island using satellites and intends to put a beacon on the ice island to better track the position.