A new study has revealed that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting rapidly from its base, and as a result, the melting water is contributing to sea level rise around the globe.
The research study claims that Greenland’s ice sheet, the biggest ice sheet in the world after Antarctica, has melted so much in the past decade that global sea levels rose by 1 centimetre.
During warmer months, meltwater meanders into lakes and streams on the surface of the ice sheet. Some of that water drains to the bottom of the ice sheet, falling through cracks and large fractures that form in the ice with movement and stress.
That meltwater contributes to more melting at the bottom of the ice sheet, which in turn promotes faster flow and increases the quantity of ice discharged into the ocean.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications on Monday, says that 3.5 trillion tonnes of Greenland’s ice sheet melted from 2011 to 2020.
Researchers from the University of Leeds Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling in Northern England found that it is melting at an exceptional rate, increasing 21 per cent in the past 40 years.
“Observations show that extreme melt events in Greenland have become more frequent and more intense—as well as more erratic—which is a global problem,” Lin Gilbert, co-author of the study, said in a statement.
The team used satellite data from the European Space Agency to estimate the elevation of the ice sheet.
It’s a method that has previously been used on floating ice sheets around Antarctica.
They found that from 2011 to 2020, the runoff from Greenland’s ice sheet averaged about 357 billion tonnes a year.
(With inputs from agencies)
