Early last month we posted about an ice island four times the size of Manhattan, a 100-square-mile block of ice 600 feet thick , that broke off from the Petermann glacier in Greenland.  In a case of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, the ice island has collided with Joe Island, a small rocky outcrop in the Nares Strait, west of Greenland.  Joe Island appears to have won as the ice island has now broken in two.

‘Manhattan’ ice island splits in two

“In the satellite imagery, you can hardly see the island because it’s so much smaller than the ice island, but it’s there; it’s a piece of rock,” said Andreas Muenchow, an associate professor at the University of Delaware.

The ice island hit Joe Island last week, and since then, combined forces of ocean currents and strong winds have weakened its structure.

“The forces of the ocean currents and the winds wiggling it on and off the island were too much,” Muenchow said.

The largest piece is approximately 152 square kilometers in diameter, or around 2.5 times the size of the New York borough of Manhattan, while the smaller piece is around 84 square kilometers, he said.