Greenland Ice Melt Accelerating
By tony leather, 26th Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
The ice is quite clearly thinning considerably around the edges, altering the overall ice mass of Greenland as warming ocean waters eat away at the ice
Greenland Ice Melt Accelerating
Dramatic research, indicating an unprecedented July melting of Greenland's ice sheet has highlighted broader concerns about regional ice loss being quite remarkable overall. University of Georgia-Athens and City University of New York scientists, along with others from NASA, all confirmed the remarkable ice melt.
About 50% of Greenland's surface ice sheet melts naturally in an average summer, but newly released data analyzed by university scientists and NASA showed that, in under one week, thawed ice sheet surface levels increased dramatically from 40% to 97%, something never before measured in thirty years of satellite observations of Greenland's surface ice cover.
There is now have abundant evidence of Greenland losing ice - probably through global warming which is significantly contributing to rising sea levels. The ice is quite clearly thinning considerably around the edges, altering the overall ice mass of Greenland as warming ocean waters eat away at the ice.
The specific extreme melt in question possibly happened because of the unusual weather patterns, this year, over Greenland - a series of so-called heat domes, which are unusually strong ridges of warm air basically - causing melting on a scale not seen since 1889.
Lora Koenig, Goddard glaciologist, commented such melting events happen every 150 years or so, though the problems will intensify if the pattern speeds up - only last week another unusual event occurred in the region.
This involved the calving of an iceberg - twice as big as Manhattan - from the Petermann Glacier, whilst separate studies suggesting that humanity is, to a large extent responsible for ocean warming, points out that specific regions of the world are becoming increasingly at risk from rising sea levels. Greenland, overall, is losing a tremendous amount of ice, and a watchful eye needs to be kept.
Comments
27th Jul 2012 (#)
Very interesting article. Things are changing. The weather here in California is totally different than it was a couple of years ago.
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