【Watch Paradise Z Online】

A mysterious crack has been spreading across a giant Greenland glacier,Watch Paradise Z Online and it's raising concerns that part of the floating ice shelf could splinter off into the ocean.

That could be bad.

Scientists with the NASA field campaign Operation IceBridge recently captured the first photographs of the growing rift while flying over Petermann Glacier, a structure that connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic Ocean.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable SEE ALSO: NASA photo reveals a startling 300-foot-wide rift in Antarctic Ice Shelf

The new chasm appears in the center of the glacier's floating ice shelf -- the tongue of ice that extends into the water from the grounded glacier on land.

In the photos, the crack appears relatively close to a larger rift spreading toward the shelf's center. Should the two intersect, part of the ice shelf in northwest Greenland could potentially break off.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

There may be a savior for the shelf. A "medial flowline" in the ice could have a "stagnating effect" on the newer rift, helping to slow or halt its advance toward the older chasm, scientists with Operation IceBridge said on Facebook.

Stef Lhermitte, a professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, first alerted the NASA team to the crack's coordinates after spotting it in satellite images, Washington Postreported.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Polar-orbiting satellites showed the chasm for the first time in July 2016, and "it has been growing since then," Lhermitte said on Twitter.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

While scientists still aren't sure what caused the crack to form, Lhermitte said a possible culprit might be "ocean forcing," a phenomenon that happens when warm ocean waters melt the ice from underneath.

Ocean forcing might also be responsible for creating cracks in another part of the world. Researchers believe it caused deep subsurface cracks to form in Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, they said in recent study. There a 20-mile-long rift eventually split the ice from the inside out and cleaved off a 225-square-mile iceberg in July 2015.

Many of the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica that end in floating ice shelves have been shrinking due to warming ocean and air temperatures.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

When ice shelves break off into icebergs it doesn't directly increase sea levels, because the ice is already floating in the ocean, like an ice cube in a glass.

However, because the ice shelves act like doorstops to the land-based ice behind them, if the shelves disappear, the glaciers can start moving into the sea. This would add new water to the ocean and therefore raise sea levels.

In the case of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, researchers said that warming waters causing cracks to form beneath "provides another mechanism for rapid retreat of these glaciers, adding to the probability that we may see significant collapse of West Antarctica in our lifetimes."

Greenland, Antarctica, the message is our planet is clearly changing.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Watch how global warming heats up the world from 1880-2016

---

• Social Good
• Science
• Digital Culture
• Deals
• Entertainment
• Tech
• Shopping
• Games

• Meta says some AGI systems are too risky to release
• Apple's truly smart Siri is coming next spring, report claims
• Webb telescope took a direct image of two exoplanets. See it now.
• Meta sues 'nudify' app Crush AI for violating advertising policies
• Best GPU deal: GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is $1,349.99 at Best Buy
• Best power station deal: Take 45% off the DJI Power 1000 portable power station
• NYT Connections hints and answers for June 12: Tips to solve 'Connections' #732.
• Best Apple deal: Save $50 on 11
• Cyrix: Gone But Not Forgotten
• 25 most popular products Mashable readers bought last month

• Uber CEO Travis Kalanick claimed he was the 2nd best Wii Tennis player in the world
• Forget the Galaxy S8, Samsung's already working on the Galaxy S9
• Samsung Galaxy S8 breaks company record for preorders
• Man hatches fake terror plot to avoid holidaying with girlfriend
• Samsung only needed 1 emoji to destroy this guy's dick pic joke
• Here's how Facebook and GIPHY became friends again
• 'We Bare Bears' is a kids' show tackling modern millennial anxieties
• You can probably (maybe?) trust this 'Avatar' sequel news, finally
• Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o might be in a film together—and it's all thanks to Twitter
• 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' struggles to measure up to the original, say critics

• Broncos vs. Bills 2025 livestream: How to watch NFL online
• Internet outage Thursday: Here's what happened
• 'Sew Torn' review: 'Pushing Daisies' meets 'Run Lola Run'
• Google to force Pixel 6a update that will reduce battery capacity
• Wordle today: The answer and hints for January 23, 2025
• Best Apple Pencil deal: Save $10 on Apple Pencil (USB
• Reasons to Upgrade Your Laptop (That Go Beyond a Performance Upgrade)
• Best Kindle deal: Save $15 on Kindle Essentials Bundle
• Best water flosser deal: Save $10 on Waterpik Cordless Pulse
• Best TV deal: Save $20 on Amazon Fire TV 2

• What Sa Nguyen uses to film TikToks that feel like FaceTime
• Dewalt 20V MAX cordless drill and impact driver: Just $149
• Best Kindle deal: Save $15 on Kindle Essentials Bundle
• Cloudflare outage: What to know, latest updates
• Apple is advertising on Elon Musk's X again
• Nvidia Reflex Tested: Low Latency Revolution?
• Best Google Play deal: Spend $50 and get a $5 credit back at Amazon
• Is Google down? Users report issues with Google Meet, Nest, and more
• Collins vs. Jabeur 2025 livestream: Watch Adelaide International for free
• Google to force Pixel 6a update that will reduce battery capacity