DOOM: GIGANTIC GREENLAND ICEBERG HEADED FOR OIL RIGS

An iceberg the size of four Manhattan islands – the largest Arctic iceberg in half a century – broke away from a Greenland glacier last week. It could generate invaluable new information on climate change, scientists say.

But the massive floe could also damage oil rigs and other marine industry as it makes its way down the Newfoundland coast.

The iceberg calved off the Petermann Glacier last Thursday, and within minutes had researchers whipped into a frenzy of data collection. It has an area of 240 square kilometres and a mass of 16 gigatonnes – big enough to supply all of the United States with tap water for 120 days, according to Andreas Muenchow, a physical oceanographer at the University of Delaware.

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