The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is seen in this undated NASA image. Vast glaciers in West Antarctica seem to be locked in an irreversible thaw linked to global warming that may push up sea levels for centuries, scientists said on May 12, 2014. Six glac
The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is seen in this undated NASA image. Vast glaciers in West Antarctica seem to be locked in an irreversible thaw linked to global warming that may push up sea levels for centuries, scientists said on May 12, 2014. Six glaciers including the Thwaites Glacier, eaten away from below by a warming of sea waters around the frozen continent, were flowing fast into the Amundsen Sea, according to the report based partly on satellite radar measurements from 1992 to 2011. Reuters/NASA

The fastest moving glacier in the world, Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier, has shed a big chunk of ice. The scientists believe that the fall of the chunk of ice, which measures almost five miles in area, might be the biggest calving event ever recorded in the history of Earth.

The Christian Science Monitor believes that the massive iceberg is enough to cover the island of Manhattan with almost 1,000 feet of ice. The resulting change to the Jakobshavn glacier is so pronounced that it can even be seen clearly in the satellite images taken by Sentinel 1-A, a satellite by the European Space Agency.

The previous radar images furnished by the satellites Sentinel 1-A and Sentinel 2-A between July 27 and Aug 19 showed the westward movement of the glacier. The scientists believe that the huge chunk fell off from the glacier between Aug 14 and Aug 16, when the front of the glacier rapidly retreated.

According to the researchers at the ESA, the ice is almost 4,600 feet deep, making up to a volume of about 17.5 cubic km. A similar event took place back in 2010, however, this time the calving is almost twice the size of the ice that disintegrated before.

The melting of the ice in Greenland contributes to almost 40 percent of the current rise in the sea water level. According to a study published recently in the Journal of Glaciology by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, the glaciers are now melting at a faster pace, more than anything recorded in the last 165 years.

"We are now seeing summer speeds more than four times what they were in the 1990s, on a glacier which at that time was believed to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, glacier in Greenland," said glaciologist Ian Joughin in a statement.

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