A Giant Iceberg Parked Offshore. It’s Stunning, but Villagers Hit the Road.

A village in Greenland is on alert amid fears that a huge iceberg could break apart and send a flood wave over the settlement.

By Tryggvi Adalbjornsson

Innaarsuit, on the west coast of Greenland, this week. The iceberg rises about 300 feet above the water level. CreditScanpix Denmark/Reuters

It was a striking sight: a huge iceberg looming over a tiny Arctic village. Ice is ubiquitous along Greenland’s coast, but this giant has put the inhabitants of the village, Innaarsuit, population 169, on edge.

Locals fear that a chunk of the iceberg might tumble into the ocean and unleash an enormous wave on the settlement. Big icebergs don’t always melt politely into the ocean. They tend to break apart in spectacular fashion. “It’s not a peaceful process,” said Joerg Schaefer, a climate researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory…