Greenland Has Been Losing Ice: Study Reveals That the Country's Ice Sheet Has Lost 20% More Than Thought Due to Climate Change

According to new research, climate change has been causing the ice sheet of Greenland to lose 20% more ice than thought.

Greenland Losing Ice

Earlier studies have discovered that roughly 5,000 gigatons of ice has been lost from the ice sheet surface of Greenland in the last 20 years. This has become a significant contributor to sea level rise.

The new study "Ubiquitous acceleration in Greenland Ice Sheet calving from 1985 to 2022" made use of satellite imagery to monitor glacier retreat in the past 40 years. The researchers compiled almost 240,000 glacier terminus position satellite images that were from 1985 to 2022. Glacier terminus positions refer to where glaciers get to meet the ocean.

Chad Greene, the study's lead author and a glaciologist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, explains that almost all glaciers in Greenland have retreated or thinned in the last few decades. Greene adds that there have been no exemptions to the phenomenon and it has been happening all over and simultaneously.

The researchers discovered that more than 1,000 gigatons, with 1 gigaton being equivalent to 1 billion tons, of ice around Greenland's edges have been lost in the last 40 years. This 20% was not previously taken into consideration.

With this, the researchers explain that the ice sheet of Greenland has appreciably lost more ice in the last few decades than previously thought so.

The researchers note that since the ice from the edges are already inside the water, this would lead to minimal direct effects on the rise of sea levels. However, it could herald general ice melt, enabling glaciers to easily bound for the sea.

Climate Change & Sea Level Rise

The scientists discovered that the glaciers in Greenland most susceptible to seasonal changes are also the ones that are most sensitive to global warming effects. They also went through the most significant retreat ever since the year 1985.

The melting of this massive ice sheet, which only comes second to Antarctica in being the world's largest, is believed to have accounted for over 20% of the rise of sea levels since the year 2002. Sea level rises pose flood risk to island and coastal communities that house hundreds of millions of individuals. It may even submerge entire seafront cities and island countries.

Atmosphere warming can lead the glacier surface to melt and trickle down to the ice sheet's bottom. This makes it easier for even more ice to get lost.

Oceans that are warm have absorbed roughly 90% of the surplus heat that is caused by the carbon pollution of humanity. These warmer oceans are associated with crucial ice shelf melting buffering the massive ice sheets across Antarctica and Greenland.

With this, the scientists also raised concerns regarding a different possible impact, which is deep-water current disruptions that are primary drivers of the patterns of global weather.

Check out more news and information on Environment & Climate in Science Times.