The Greenland ice sheet experienced a “massive meltdown” this week, releasing enough mass “to cover Florida with two inches of water,” according to researchers from the Danish government monitoring the ice sheet.
The researchers, who publish the results of their monitoring on the Polar Portal website, said Wednesday’s melting event was the third largest one-day ice loss in Greenland since 1950 – the others happened in 2012 and 2019.
Although the 2019 event was larger in volume, researchers say Wednesday’s event covered a larger area.
Massive melting event in Greenland. In terms of gigatons, while not as extreme as 2019 (left picture – but still enough to cover Florida with two inches of water), the area that is being melted over (right picture) is even slightly larger than two years ago. pic.twitter.com/reeDIlYTA7
– Polar portal (@PolarPortal) July 29, 2021
WHY IS SO MUCH ICE MELTING?
An estimated 22 gigatons of ice melted from the leaf on Wednesday.
More than half of this mass (12 gigatons) flowed into the ocean, according to climate researcher Xavier Fettweis from the University of Liège in Belgium.
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He pointed out that the remaining 10 gigatons were absorbed by previous heavy snowfalls and may have been re-frozen.
A gigaton is a unit of mass that equates to one billion tons, or 2.2 trillion pounds.
Satellite image shows melt ponds 90 km southeast of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, Greenland (Photo: Reuters / European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 images)
Scientists have pointed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns as a determining factor and found that the exceptionally rapid melting is due to the trapping of warm air over the arctic island.
The Danish Meteorological Institute currently reports summer temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) in northern Greenland – twice the summer average.
On Thursday, the thermometers in the region reached 23.4 degrees Celsius.
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WHAT’S AT STAKE WHEN GREENLAND MELTAINS?
Scientists fear that if atmospheric patterns continue to trap increasingly warmer air, it could create an intensified feedback loop that will accelerate further melting.
The melting is especially amplified as more dark earth is exposed to the sun’s rays and absorbs them rather than reflecting them like the ice does.
Satellite image shows the very significant runoff of sediments into the Arctic Ocean by glaciers melting as a result of unusually high temperatures, Greenland (Photo: Reuters / European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 images)
Researchers say the ice sheet began losing mass in 1990 and that its shrinkage has accelerated since 2000. They also found that the mass loss in recent years is about four times greater than it was before 2000.
Greenland, the largest non-continental island in the world, is also home to the only permanent ice sheet on earth outside of Antarctica.
This fact makes it the second largest body of freshwater on the planet – the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctica contain 70 percent of the world’s freshwater.
Scientists estimate that if the leaf melted completely, global sea levels could rise anywhere from 6 to 7 meters (20-23 feet).
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