World's fastest glacier may have lost the largest chunk of ice ever recorded

A glacier in Greenland just lost a huge chunk of ice. Maybe the biggest ever.

The Jakobshavn Glacier is said to be one of the fastest in the world and has been recorded moving around 150 feet per day in the past. And, earlier this month, it lost a nearly five square mile mass of ice in the course of seven days, according to satellite imagery.

NASA released before-and-after photos of the ice loss, which in the vernacular of iceberg studies, is referred to as "calving."

For context, the amount of ice lost by Jakobshavn would cover all of Manhattan in ice nearly 1,000 feet thick.

If the ice broke off in one fell swoop, then it would likely be the largest calving event to have ever occurred on a glacier. Because Greenland is not fully monitored, however, it's difficult to tell if the ice loss actually happened all at once or rather via several smaller calving events.

The glacier drains a substantial amount of ice from the Greenland ice sheet, and around 10% of its icebergs are produced by it.

It's widely believed the Titanic was done in by an iceberg originating from Jakobshavn.