Thaw raises iceberg threat for Arctic explorers

This August 5, 2012 NASA handout image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA s Terra satellite shows an iceberg(C) from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland. The iceberg, twice the size of Manhattan, tore off one of Greenland's largest glaciers on July 16, 2012. For several years, scientists had been watching a long crack near the tip of the northerly Petermann Glacier. On Monday, NASA satellites showed it had broken completely, freeing an iceberg measuring 46 square miles (74m). The massive ice sheet covers about four-fifths of Greenland. Petermann Glacier is mostly on land, but a segment sticks out over water. AFP PHOTO/HANDOUT/NASA = RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT

Alert: iceberg twice the size of Manhattan could be sign of things to come as Greenland thaws.

Oil companies off Greenland's shores may be basing risk assessments on outdated information as icebergs splinter the island’s coastline at an ever faster pace, according to a report.

The warnings from scientists and environmentalists come weeks after an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke off a glacier on north-western Greenland and as explorers turn to the world’s least hospitable areas in search of dwindling resources in easier-to-access places.

“When you have a change in the number of icebergs, which we most probably have now, you’re basing your risk assessment on outdated information,” Jan-Gunnar Winther, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute, told Bloomberg.

It is important for companies to update their knowledge of iceberg formation and movements if they do not…

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