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Ice calving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier. [1] It is a form of ice ablation or ice disruption . It is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from a glacier , iceberg , ice front , ice shelf , or crevasse .
The William Glacier in Antarctica partially collapsed in the same week as Antarctica's hottest recorded day at 65ºF. It lasted for several minutes and stretched half a mile.
[2] [3] Two EIS videographers waited several weeks in a small tent overlooking the glacier and, finally, witnessed 7.4 cubic kilometres (1.8 cu mi) of ice crashing off [4] the glacier. "The calving of a massive glacier believed to have produced the ice that sank the Titanic is like watching a city break apart." [4]
At an elevation of 2800 metres, the lower end of a glacier snapped off. The break-off had a width of about 80 metres and a height of 25 metres. The detached volume was estimated to be 65,000 ± 10,000 cubic metres. [6] The seismic energy released was comparable to an earthquake of 0.6 M. [1]
The Patagonian glacier drops large amounts of ice about every four years. The last rupture was in 2012. Partial breaks occurred in February, indicating a large collapse could happen soon.
An iceberg 4 times the size of the island of Manhattan has broken off West Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, the fastest melting glacier on the continent.
Icebergs are unpredictable and can capsize anytime and without warning. Large icebergs that break off from a glacier front and flip onto the glacier face can push the entire glacier backwards momentarily, producing 'glacial earthquakes' that generate as much energy as an atomic bomb. [20] [21]
The Kolka–Karmadon rock-ice slide occurred on the northern slope of the Mount Kazbek massif in North Ossetia–Alania on 20 September 2002, following a partial collapse of the Kolka Glacier. It started on the north-northeast wall of Mount Jimara , 4,780 m (15,680 ft) above sea level, and seriously affected the valley of Genaldon and Karmadon.