It ’s well known that Greenland moderate a ton of frozen piss — enough to raise ocean levels by nearly 25 feet were it all to melt . regrettably , new enquiry suggests melting may occur quicker than we think as the Earth warms , because of how Greenland ’s glacier are anchor to bedrock .
Astudypublished this week in Geophysical Research Letters finds that we ’ve been underestimating how many of Greenland ’s coastal glaciers are at peril of increase melting due to climate alteration — by a factor of two to four . scientist at UC Irvine , NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , and elsewhere make that conclusion by reconstruct the highest firmness maps to date of Greenland ’s coastal seafloor and bedrock .
These map reveal that many coastal glacier are deeply rooted , crap contact with fundamental principle more than 200 feet below sea point . more or less counterintuitively , deep - rooted glacier are exposed to warmer water—3 to 4 degrees Celsius ( 6 to 8 arcdegree Fahrenheit ) warm than the amniotic fluid chilling near Greenland ’s surface , which hail from cool Arctic author .
“ We know that the retreat and acceleration of many glaciers around Greenland is trigger off by the interaction between the internal-combustion engine and this warm water , ” lead writer Mathieu Morlighem , an Earth scientist at UC Irvine , told Earther . “ Our new chromosome mapping present that many of the fiord where the glacier are presently flowing are bass and extend over long distance with no obstacles that may immobilise this warm pee as they retrograde . ”
In order for these rich - steady down glacier to lose contact with that warm water , Morlighem tell , they have to withdraw very far inland . This process will take a long time , suggesting that as ocean temperatures rise , Greenland will carry on to turn a loss lot for centuries to add up .
“ In the past , since we did not know how deep the bed was near the coast , it had been suggested that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would not last very long , as the glaciers would not need to retreat far inland to lose contact with these warm sea current , ” Morlighem excuse . “ We have indicate here that this is apparently not genuine . ”
The analysis pull on data from NASA ’s Ocean Melting Greenland ( OMG ) run , which includes aerial surveys of the frosting shroud ’s perimeter that measure changes in trash sheet height , ocean temperatures and brininess around more than 200 fjords where glaciers meet the sea . It also draw on data point from NASA ’s Operation IceBridge , another airborne survey that assess ice sheet astuteness .
“ This is a secure , solid , useful written report , ” Richard Alley , a glaciologist at Penn State University who was not need with the piece of work , told Earther . “ Many retiring models have not amply resolved the inscrutable outlets where [ ice ] stream is peculiarly dissipated . With this improved map , the focal point can dislodge to meliorate the modeling … . to more accurately project the hereafter of the methamphetamine sail and thus of ocean level . ”
As glaciologists preserve refining their models of Greenland ’s hereafter — and the hereafter of coastline around the human race — climate modification has already arrived to the huge icy island . Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at about twice the globular average rate . A study publish last year found that Greenland lost a whoppingone trillion tons of methamphetamine between 2011 and 2014 .
of the essence ice flows , like the Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland , are change before our center , cracking up and spitting hefty chunks of ice into the sea . But if the new study is any indicator , the change we ’re see now are quite literally the tip of the iceberg .
clime changeglaciersice on thin ice
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