Scientists are keeping a close watch on Greenland’s ice sheet to monitor global warming impacts in one of the most temperature-sensitive places on Earth. And last week, they watched as a massive 2.7-square mile secion of the Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier broke apart and floated off into the sea. “While there have been ice breakouts of this magnitude from Jakonbshavn and other glaciers in the past, this event is unusual because it occurs on the heels of a warm winter that saw no sea ice form in the surrounding bay,” said Thomas Wagner, cryospheric program scientist at NASA Headquarters. “While the exact relationship between these events is being determined, it lends credence to the theory that warming of the oceans is responsible for the ice loss observed throughout Greenland and Antarctica.

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