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Saturday, December 10, 2011

RETREAT OF GREENLAND'S HELHEIM GLACIER

RETREAT OF GREENLAND'S HELHEIM GLACIER

Left: May 12, 2001. Middle: July 7, 2003. Right: June 19, 2005. Along the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet, outlet glaciers flow as icy rivers through fjords and out to sea. These pictures show a fjord in which Helheim glacier (on the left) is crumbling into large and small icebergs (light blue, on the right). The glacier outlet ("calving front") held steady from the 1970s until about 2001, then began to retreat towards its source about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) between 2001 and 2005. The glacier’s flow to the sea has also sped up.  Click to enlarge.




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