Melting speed is the fastest in the past 12,000 years, four times faster than the past
Last week, news broke that the Greenland ice sheet was “melting surprisingly extensively, and at an unimaginable rate.”
In just three days, 18 billion tons of ice melted into the North Atlantic Ocean.
Looking at the satellite imagery, we can see that the coast of Greenland is dotted with melting ponds.
Most of the melting occurs in northern Greenland, according to Ted Scanbos, senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, where “18 billion tonnes is the amount of water that could cover the state of West Virginia with a thickness of 30 centimeters.” It says.
Melting ice sheets not only directly cause sea level rise and floods, but also have the potential to cause serious damage to civil life, such as storm surges and coastal erosion.
If all of Greenland’s ice melted, sea levels would rise by about 7.5 meters.
There are several reasons for the melting of the ice sheet, but the most recent reason is believed to be a high-pressure system over Greenland that caused widespread melting.
Especially for the last three days, the temperature was about 6 degrees higher than normal, with some exceeding 15 degrees Celsius.
In the 1980s and 1990s, such melting was rare in Greenland, but since 2010 it has become more frequent.
For example, 2012 and 2019 both saw some of the biggest melts in history.