Greenland’s rugged coastline is lined with fjords, many of which are home to sea-terminating glaciers that routinely dump icebergs into the water. It is common to see these icebergs, small and large, drifting in the island’s fjords each summer once the sea ice breaks up. In the summer of 2026, an exceptionally large iceberg appeared in the Denmark Strait, more than a thousand kilometers south of where it apparently originated.
These images, captured by Landsat 9’s OLI (Operational Land Imager), show the iceberg on June 12 while sailing in the strait between Greenland and Iceland. It was just south of Kangikajiip Appalia, a cape on the east coast of Greenland visible at the top left of the scene, amid a mix of sea ice and iceberg fragments known as a “mélange.”
Alexis Denton, an oceanographer and chief scientist for the International Ice Patrol, said several clues indicate that this is an iceberg rather than thick, multi-year sea ice: its proximity to the coast, its whiter color and its larger size compared to the surrounding sea ice. On June 12, the iceberg, which measured about 17 square kilometers (7 square miles), was about five times the area of New York City’s Central Park. That’s modest compared to the giant icebergs calving from Antarctica’s glaciers and ice shelves, but large by Greenland standards.
Keld Quistgaard, senior ice advisor at the Greenland Ice Service of the Danish Meteorological Institute, said it originated in Jøkelbugten, a bay in northeastern Greenland. However, the precise origin of the iceberg within that bay remains a mystery. The iceberg may have calved off Zachariæ Isstrøm or its adjacent remnant ice shelf. The ice shelf, which together with Zachariæ Isstrøm once filled the bay, was abandoned after the glacier rapidly retreated in the early 2000s.
Tracking their way back through satellite images is a challenge. During spring, the bay and surrounding coastal areas become clogged with sea ice and iceberg fragments, making it difficult to distinguish individual icebergs, especially if they are covered in shiny snow. At the end of May, for example, the iceberg was surrounded by numerous imitators. Only later in the season, as it moved south and the ice around it thinned, did it become distinctive enough to be easily detected.
Its size and striking network of blue meltwater ponds offer some clues to its origin, according to Christopher Shuman, a retired glaciologist at the University of Maryland. Shuman believes the iceberg broke off from the remaining ice shelf and not from the glacier itself. Icebergs born from Zachariæ Isstrøm tend to be smaller, he said. Furthermore, the iceberg’s surface, dotted with pools of meltwater, “like Swiss cheese,” closely resembles the remaining ice shelf. Previous satellite images show chunks of that ice shelf moving south and becoming trapped between islands lining the bay, where winds and tides have pushed them for years.
In mid-August, the iceberg was about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from the bay, moving south along the Greenland Coastal Current toward the North Atlantic. Quistgaard expected the iceberg to gradually disintegrate over the course of the month. Recent satellite images suggested it was doing just that.
Its breakup in the Denmark Strait means the iceberg’s remains are unlikely to move into busier shipping routes passing the southern tip of Greenland. “Their journey is a reminder of the dynamic Earth,” Shuman said, “as well as the seasonal variability of the ice in this part of the North Atlantic.”
NASA Earth Observatory images taken by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
- NASA Earth Observatory (December 4, 2015) Zachariæ Isstrøm Glacier, Greenland. Accessed August 19, 2026.
- Sutherland, D.A., & Pickart, R.S. (2008). The East Greenland Coastal Current: Structure, variability and forcing. Progress in Oceanography78(1), 58-77.
Source link
