Greenland's glaciers are melting at worst-case scenario rates
- 4 years ago
GREENLAND — A new study using satellite images finds that Greenland's glacier melt is accelerating, the study's authors wrote in an article published in the journal Nature.
The study says the pace of melting matches the worse climate warming and sea-level scenarios predicted by the U.N.
The Guardian reports that according to the data, Greenland has lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992 and that the current rate of melting is seven times faster than compared to the nineties.
Study co-author Andrew Shepard says that Greenland has raised the sea level by one centimeter since the 1990s, enough to bring annual and seasonal floods to six million people.
He tells the Washington Post that the U.N.'s worst-case scenarios predict that Greenland will contribute another 16 centimeters of sea-level rise by 2100.
While seawater normally erodes the glaciers, the study finds that rising summer temperatures are turning exposed ice to meltwater, which makes the shelf melt faster.
The study additionally finds that glaciers are flowing faster into the deep waters of Greenland's fjords and that this makes the ice shelf break into pieces in the ocean.
The study says the pace of melting matches the worse climate warming and sea-level scenarios predicted by the U.N.
The Guardian reports that according to the data, Greenland has lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992 and that the current rate of melting is seven times faster than compared to the nineties.
Study co-author Andrew Shepard says that Greenland has raised the sea level by one centimeter since the 1990s, enough to bring annual and seasonal floods to six million people.
He tells the Washington Post that the U.N.'s worst-case scenarios predict that Greenland will contribute another 16 centimeters of sea-level rise by 2100.
While seawater normally erodes the glaciers, the study finds that rising summer temperatures are turning exposed ice to meltwater, which makes the shelf melt faster.
The study additionally finds that glaciers are flowing faster into the deep waters of Greenland's fjords and that this makes the ice shelf break into pieces in the ocean.