Contact: Deborah Wing
dwing@nsf.gov
703-292-5344
National Science Foundation

Jakobshavn Isfjord --The Largest Outlet Glacier on Greenland's West Coast

Caption: The north branch of Jakobshavn Isbrae is in the upper left corner of the image, with several newly calved icebergs in front of it. The larger, faster moving, south branch is located near the upper right corner. Prior to about 2003, both branches merged to create a large floating ice tongue that extended beyond the iceberg covered area visible in this image. Since the 1990, the glacier calving front (terminus) has retreated about 18 km. Now, it is only in the winter that both branches sometimes merge to form a much smaller seasonal ice tongue, which breaks up in the spring.

Credit: Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington

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