<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/17/greenland-losing-30m-tonnes-of-ice-an-hour-study-reveals>
"The Greenland ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour due to
the climate crisis, a study has revealed, which is 20% more than was previously
thought.
Some scientists are concerned that this additional source of freshwater pouring
into the north Atlantic might mean a collapse of the ocean currents called the
Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is closer to being
triggered, with severe consequences for humanity.
Major ice loss from Greenland as a result of global heating has been recorded
for decades. The techniques employed to date, such as measuring the height of
the ice sheet or its weight via gravity data, are good at determining the
losses that end up in the ocean and drive up sea level.
However, they cannot account for the retreat of glaciers that already lie
mostly below sea level in the narrow fjords around the island. In the study,
satellite photos were analysed by scientists to determine the end position of
Greenland’s many glaciers every month from 1985 to 2022. This showed large and
widespread shortening and in total amounted to a trillion tonnes of lost ice.
“The changes around Greenland are tremendous and they’re happening everywhere –
almost every glacier has retreated over the past few decades,” said Dr Chad
Greene, at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US, who led the research.
“It makes sense that if you dump freshwater on to the north Atlantic Ocean,
then you certainly get a weakening of the Amoc, though I don’t have an
intuition for how much weakening.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
