Greenland Immense Ice Sheet Lost Enough Ice to Submerge US: Report

• Image Credit: Internet

• Feb 3, 2022 | Deleted

 

Digital Desk: Greenland’s massive ice sheet has lost enough ice in the last 20 years to drown the entire United States in half a metre of water, as per statistics released this week by Danish experts.

According to NASA, the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet, and melting ice from Greenland is now the primary cause of rising sea levels.

Greenland’s ice sheet has lost around 4,700 billion tonnes of ice since its observations which began in 2002 as per the Polar Portal, a joint initiative of multiple Danish Arctic research institutes.

Moreover, according to the Arctic monitoring website, this amounts to 4,700 cubic kilometers of melted water, enough to cover the entire United States by half a metre and has contributed 1.2 centimeters to sea-level rise.

The findings of the Polar Portal are based on satellite imagery from the US-German GRACE program (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), which revealed that ice melt was most severe at the Arctic territory’s coasts, at the ice sheet’s edge.

“Independent observations also show that the ice is thinning, that the glacier fronts in fjords and on land are retreating, and that there is a larger degree of melting from the surface of the ice.” the website stated.

According to the data, the west coast of Greenland is significantly affected.

According to scientists, climate change is particularly concerning in the Arctic, which is warming at three to four times the world average.

The faster melting near Greenland’s shores can be explained by the warming of the Arctic Ocean, according to NASA research published in late January.

“At least as much as warm air from above is melting Greenland’s glaciers.” says the phenomenon.

According to the US agency, Greenland’s melting ice is currently the primary cause in the rise of the Earth’s ocean, and the territory’s glaciers are retreating six to seven times faster than they were 25 years ago.

According to climate scientists, the Greenland ice sheet holds enough water to raise the oceans by more than seven metres, and the Antarctic ice sheet holds enough water to raise the oceans by almost 50 metres.

Although melting has minimal influence on sea levels, the Arctic sea ice cover has diminished significantly, shedding around 13% of its average surface area every ten years.