Several days of unusually warm weather in northern Greenland have triggered rapid melting, made apparent by the rivers of meltwater rushing into the ocean. Temperatures are around 60 degrees Fahrenheit – 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.
The amount of ice that melted in Greenland between July 15 and 17 – 6 billion tons of water per day – would be enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.
“The northern melt this past week is not normal, looking at 30 to 40 years of climate averages,” said Ted Scambos, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. “But melting has been on the increase, and this event was a spike in melt.”
Greenland holds enough ice that if it all melted, it would raise sea level by 7.5 meters around the world.
The latest research points to a more and more precarious situation for Greenland.
“Unprecedented” rates of melting have been observed at the base of the Greenland ice sheet, a study published in February found, caused by huge quantities of meltwater trickling down from the surface. This water is especially concerning because it can destabilize the sheet above it and could lead to a massive, rapid loss of ice.
In 2020, scientists found that Greenland’s ice sheet had melted beyond the point of no return. No efforts to fend off global warming can stop it from eventually disintegrating, said researchers at the Ohio State University.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/world/greenland-heat-wave-ice-melting-climate/index.html