Iceberg Warning East Greenland

[Espen]

A very large Iceberg will soon be departing Jøkelbugt and Zachariae Isstrøm, the size of this Iceberg is very rare nowadays on the East Coast of Greenland and could later be a hazard to shipping etc. further south.
The size of this Iceberg is aprox. 10 x 5 km or about 43 km2. not a common Iceberg in these water!

Let us call it ZI-XL-2021

Please click on image to animate!

[Tealight]

That's still a long way away from shipping lanes.

On 16th of August I saw two large icebergs at the south east tip of Greenland (60.5N, 42.5W)
The bigger one just split into half making it technically three.

Dimensions:
First: 2300m x 670m
Second: 4050m x 1220m

[FredBear]

Espen's iceberg can be seen mooching around that inlet for at least the last 2 years and it still has to go north past the chain of islands to the east before it reaches the open sea (to which it now seems to be making rapid progress.). There are more icebergs "bottled up" down south behind that island chain - I don't think any more will escape soon.

[Espen]

Espen's iceberg can be seen mooching around that inlet for at least the last 2 years and it still has to go north past the chain of islands to the east before it reaches the open sea (to which it now seems to be making rapid progress.). There are more icebergs "bottled up" down south behind that island chain - I don't think any more will escape soon.

I dont see those icebergs "bottled up" in the south escaping the "pinball machine", they will be reduced in size everytime they hit an rocky island.

And ZI-XL-2021 when entering open seas  to the East, will be the last in this size for years to come.

[be cause]

Soon to join OffTheGrid's icebergs floating around in the North Sea ?

[Tor Bejnar]

And ZI-XL-2021 when entering open seas  to the East, will be the last in this size for years to come.

Bigger than the "any day now (probably this decade ...)" Petermann Glacier future iceberg?  Some day, presumably, these icebergs will be south of Greenland, so coming from the East or West won't matter.

[Espen]

And ZI-XL-2021 when entering open seas  to the East, will be the last in this size for years to come.

Bigger than the "any day now (probably this decade ...)" Petermann Glacier future iceberg?  Some day, presumably, these icebergs will be south of Greenland, so coming from the East or West won't matter.

Icebergs from the west coast normally ends up in Canada, and I am sorry I did not spell it out, I should have known better.

[Often Distant]

Here it is. Soon to be on the move again.


Here it was in August to confirm it is the same berg.

[Espen]

Here it is. Soon to be on the move again.

It is a calf from Zachariae Gletscher, and surprised it came so far will be interesting to follow!

[Espen]

That's still a long way away from shipping lanes.

This is not true, ZI-XL-2021 is now less than 700 km or 380 nautical miles north of Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord where several legal and illegal cruise ships go to watch the large Walterhausen Gletscher, and if an accident should happen in this part of Greenland it will take some time for rescue to arrive, will for sure make headlines, another 2022 Titanic scandal perhaps?

[Espen]

By the way, thanks to "Often Distant" for reminding me of this renegade Iceberg ZI-XL-2021, my RAM capacity is not what it used to be!

[Espen]

Some more data about the Iceberg originating from Zachariae Isstrøm, it is 33 km² and max 50 km away from open sea, it is now parked in sea ice and just about 80 km north of Isle De France.

Please click on image to enlarge!

[Espen]

The origin of ZI - XL - 2021, from what I can tell is from the probably biggest breakup / calving or whatever the term is (+ 1000 km²) *), happening in modern times (even before satellites) in Greenland, August and September 2002 was a disastrous period for Zachariae Isstrøm and it has been retreating ever since.

I am still puzzled to what actually happened that summer in and around Zachariae Isstrøm?
*)
Petermann Gletscher lost a "mere" 260 km² on August 5 2010.

Jakobshavn Isbræ "only" lost some 330 km² over 150 years.

[oren]

Yeah that seems like a crazy event. It was probably melting at the underside for years due to some ocean warming, but I hesitate to speculate with zero knowledge.

So the iceberg was bouncing around Jokel Bugt and its rocks all that time in pinball machine style, until it managed to be swept away? That's nearly 20 years.

[Espen]

To continue the research into what happened in 2002 - 2003, a period that changed a lot in the Northeast of Greenland.
For the first and only time in this century the Independence Fjord system was almost clean of sea ice, the same situation all the way south to Jøkelbugt (Zachariae Isstrøm), what happened then and why?

Please click on image to enlarge!

[Espen]

ZI - XL - 2021:

The extremely large Iceberg ZI - XL - 2021 (+ 30 km²) is now only 10 km from open sea and could be released any day soon:

Please click on image to enlarge:

[Espen]

Will be very interesting to see how Danish Authorities and the Science World will handle this one, it has only been mentioned on ASIF so far to my knowledge?

[Phil.]

ZI - XL - 2021:

The extremely large Iceberg ZI - XL - 2021 (+ 30 km²) is now only 10 km from open sea and could be released any day soon:

Yes that will be in the open sea soon, any idea how high it is?

[uniquorn]

This should be trackable on worldview for any who are interested.
https://go.nasa.gov/3xnOBzJ  ZI-XL-2021 shows slightly brighter on terra modis, jun9

Heavy contrast version

[uniquorn]

Can't be too long now for zi-xl-2021
https://go.nasa.gov/3yiJi6n

S1A

[Often Distant]

I traced 'ZI-XL-2021' back through satellite history. Based on the appearance of the groove indentations bending, I guess it may have possibly calved away from where I placed the thicker oval in the first image.
The ice berg can be seen becoming less extra large across the other images.

[uniquorn]

ZI-XL-2021 has some movement on yesterday's S1A from polarview.

[uniquorn]

zi-xl-2021 Worldview with jun10 location
https://go.nasa.gov/3zZvrmd

[uniquorn]

update on zi-xl-2021. Some tracking links on worldview with some very rough measurements suggesting some loss of area. However comparing S1A's from polarview on aug2 and oct20 the size looks similar, if a little rounded at the edges. Maybe not all the floe was iceberg.


https://go.nasa.gov/3gy9xiD
https://go.nasa.gov/3F5EuFs
https://go.nasa.gov/3z3nTyb
https://go.nasa.gov/3SF1RZD
https://go.nasa.gov/3MTNGON

[Often Distant]

I believe we can see zi-xl-2021 on worldview images now roughly where we saw it last.
78.21N 14.56W

It's within the fast ice but it's too big to remain camouflaged as it has begun moving about. It's drawing its own highlight circle around itself on the map so we can observe it. It's unsettled and wants out.

[Often Distant]

The way out becomes clearer

[Often Distant]

A gif update. It's still near where it was. A bit of movement in recent weeks.

[Often Distant]

An image of the iceberg before sundown and a gif update of the dark. ZI-XL-2021 is held in fast sea ice near where it was for decades, though is now on the outer. The detached segment moved around up the other side of the berg and remained in sea ice since, visible motionless in the gif. Sea ice is breaking back close in recent days.

The smaller piece is roughly 800m x 2400m

edit gif sped up.

[Espen]

An image of the iceberg before sundown and a gif update of the dark. ZI-XL-2021 is held in fast sea ice near where it was for decades, though is now on the outer. The detached segment moved around up the other side of the berg and remained in sea ice since, visible motionless in the gif. Sea ice is breaking back close in recent days.

It would be an advantage to reduce the speed of the GIF?

[Often Distant]

It would be an advantage to reduce the speed of the GIF?

Sorry, I thought you meant increase it. I'll make a better one after there's more movement. The gif is mainly a quick guide to the location to watch for when the sea ice breaks in.