3 ms·

Greenland is melting. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/28/greenland-is-melting-faster-than-at-any-time-in-the-last-450-years-a

Greenland is melting. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/28/greenland-is-melting-faster-than-at-any-time-in-the-last-450-years-at-least/?utm_term=.83fe975442cb https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...

credit_guy 8y ago
Check this out for real time data about the Greenland ice mass budget. (Spoiler: Greenland is not melting) https://www.dmi.dk/en/groenland/maalinger/greenland-ice-sheet-surface-mass-budget/ https://www.dmi.dk/en/groenland/maalinger/greenland-ice-shee...
- jerdimus 8y ago
  You are right, it's not losing mass through melting. But it is losing mass when iceberg calving is accounted for. "Over the year, it snows more than it melts, but calving of icebergs also adds to the total mass budget of the ice sheet. Satellite observations over the last decade show that the ice sheet is not in balance. The calving loss is greater than the gain from surface mass balance, and Greenland is losing mass at about 200 Gt/yr." Edit: And i thought this article on the scale of a gigaton of water was interesting as well: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/01/meet-the-gigaton-the-huge-unit-that-scientists-use-to-track-planetary-change https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
  - credit_guy 8y ago
    200 Gt = 0.007% of the ice mass of Greenland. Or 0.5mm sea level increase (from your link).
southern_cross 8y ago
I found it curious that this research only went back 450 years or so, since that takes you back to just before the Little Ice Age, a time of unusually cold temperatures, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. One wonders what they would have found had they kept going further back in time. BTW, they already know that a lot of the melting in Greenland is from the bottom up (geothermal) rather than from the top down. But of course you don't hear too much about that, do you? https://www.newsweek.com/puzzling-heat-deep-inside-earth-melting-greenlands-glaciers-786943 https://www.newsweek.com/puzzling-heat-deep-inside-earth-mel...

credit_guy 8y ago

Check this out for real time data about the Greenland ice mass budget. (Spoiler: Greenland is not melting) https://www.dmi.dk/en/groenland/maalinger/greenland-ice-sheet-surface-mass-budget/ https://www.dmi.dk/en/groenland/maalinger/greenland-ice-shee...

jerdimus 8y ago
You are right, it's not losing mass through melting. But it is losing mass when iceberg calving is accounted for. "Over the year, it snows more than it melts, but calving of icebergs also adds to the total mass budget of the ice sheet. Satellite observations over the last decade show that the ice sheet is not in balance. The calving loss is greater than the gain from surface mass balance, and Greenland is losing mass at about 200 Gt/yr." Edit: And i thought this article on the scale of a gigaton of water was interesting as well: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/01/meet-the-gigaton-the-huge-unit-that-scientists-use-to-track-planetary-change https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
- credit_guy 8y ago
  200 Gt = 0.007% of the ice mass of Greenland. Or 0.5mm sea level increase (from your link).

southern_cross 8y ago

I found it curious that this research only went back 450 years or so, since that takes you back to just before the Little Ice Age, a time of unusually cold temperatures, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. One wonders what they would have found had they kept going further back in time. BTW, they already know that a lot of the melting in Greenland is from the bottom up (geothermal) rather than from the top down. But of course you don't hear too much about that, do you? https://www.newsweek.com/puzzling-heat-deep-inside-earth-melting-greenlands-glaciers-786943 https://www.newsweek.com/puzzling-heat-deep-inside-earth-mel...