Greenland’s many small glaciers are melting rapidly, and the melting is increasing, especially in the Arctic regions, where the temperature rise is the worst.
Researchers have now studied precisely how much mass these glaciers-not connected to the ice sheet-have lost in recent decades.
The study led by researchers at DTU Space focuses on smaller glaciers with no connection to the Greenland Ice Sheet. These peripheral glaciers make up only about four percent of Greenland’s ice-covered areas, corresponding to roughly the same area as Ireland, but they contribute as much as 11 percent of the total loss of ice from Greenland’s ice-covered areas. They are thus a major contributor to global sea level rise.
The new study indicates that the melting of the peripheral glaciers has increased dramatically over the past two decades. On average, 42.3 gigatons of ice melted annually from October 2018 to December 2021. In comparison, 27.2 gigatons melted annually in the period February 2003 to October 2009.
“We can see that there is a marked increase in the melting of the glaciers in northern Greenland. This shows that the ice masses in Greenland are very unstable and that they make a considerable contribution to the global sea level rise,” said Khan.
In Greenland, there are many glaciers that are not connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet. They are named peripheral glaciers and it is estimated that there are 20,300 of them (minimum area of 0.05 square kilometers). They are found from the northernmost to the southernmost Greenland and range from large ice caps to small cirque glaciers, which are glaciers delimited to a depression in the terrain. All these glaciers have their own mass balance which is the ration between summer melting and winter snowfall.
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-reveals-northernmost-glaciers-globe.html