January 5, 2016
By Chelsea Harvey
Rising global temperatures (click here) may be affecting the Greenland ice sheet - and its contribution to sea-level rise - in more serious ways that scientists imagined, a new study finds.
Recent changes to the island's snow and ice cover appear to have affected its ability to store excess water, meaning more melting ice may be running off into the ocean than previously thought.
That's worrying news for the precarious Greenland ice sheet, which scientists say has already lost more than 8.16 trillion tonnes of ice in the past century - and whose melting rate only continues to increase as temperatures keep warming up....
This was also reported about the same time of year in 2015 by the LA Times. With Greenland ice melting at accelerted rates, sea level rise is also accelerated. The two large ice sheets that will cause sea level rise to be profound is Greenland and Antarctica. They are all land ice sheets with numerous glaciers.
January 12, 2015
By Geoffrey Mohan
Over a few summer days in 2012, (click here) nearly all of the Greenland ice sheet surface thawed right under the feet of a UCLA-led team of scientists.
What was not absorbed into snow quickly gathered and flowed across the 20,000-square-mile sheet, coalescing into roaring turquoise rivers. And then most of it disappeared....
It is not surprising to realize larger and larger ice fields in Greenland are disappearing. We have watched the Greenland ice sheets melting around the edges for well over a decade now. There comes a tipping point and with this being the second season in a row to record ice melts, this is a new reality.
By Chelsea Harvey
Rising global temperatures (click here) may be affecting the Greenland ice sheet - and its contribution to sea-level rise - in more serious ways that scientists imagined, a new study finds.
Recent changes to the island's snow and ice cover appear to have affected its ability to store excess water, meaning more melting ice may be running off into the ocean than previously thought.
That's worrying news for the precarious Greenland ice sheet, which scientists say has already lost more than 8.16 trillion tonnes of ice in the past century - and whose melting rate only continues to increase as temperatures keep warming up....
This was also reported about the same time of year in 2015 by the LA Times. With Greenland ice melting at accelerted rates, sea level rise is also accelerated. The two large ice sheets that will cause sea level rise to be profound is Greenland and Antarctica. They are all land ice sheets with numerous glaciers.
By Geoffrey Mohan
Over a few summer days in 2012, (click here) nearly all of the Greenland ice sheet surface thawed right under the feet of a UCLA-led team of scientists.
What was not absorbed into snow quickly gathered and flowed across the 20,000-square-mile sheet, coalescing into roaring turquoise rivers. And then most of it disappeared....
It is not surprising to realize larger and larger ice fields in Greenland are disappearing. We have watched the Greenland ice sheets melting around the edges for well over a decade now. There comes a tipping point and with this being the second season in a row to record ice melts, this is a new reality.
