Alert! Greenland's Ice Now Melting At Catastrophic Speed

Greenland ice melted on Monday at such a catastrophic speed that scientists could hardly believe it. It was such an the "extreme melt event" that experts had to check if they were making a mistake.

"We had to check that our models were still working properly. Such a melt is normal for late May, but not mid-April. Something like this wipes out all kinds of records," said Peter Langen, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute. "This could be a sign of things we're going to see more often in the future."

Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) discovered that there was at least one millimeter thick and 1.7 million square kilometers wide melted ice on top of Greenland's ice sheet. This makes up around 12 percent of the whole ice sheet, double the rate of melting the day before which was only at 4 percent, according to Inquisitr.

This ice meltdown this year has broken records for the earliest area melt dates (May 8, 1990, May 9, 2006 and May 5, 2010) by almost a month.

A study released in early April stated that the catastrophic speed of the ice melt in Greenland could be a result of natural geothermal activity from underneath the Greenland ice sheets. Experts, on the other hand, are looking at the warming of the climate and higher frequency of rain as the possible reasons behind the rapid increase in the amount of ice melt.

Continuous melting of ice sheets is increasing the sea water level, rising concern to many. NASA reported in September 2015 that despite the continuous effort to slow down climate change, the world is in for at least 3 feet of water level increase, as per CNN.

If the present weather condition continues, there is a high possibility of the 2012 big melt-off to happen again, wherein 95 percent of the ice sheet has shown signs of melting, as per The Christian Science Monitor.

For details on the Greenland ice meltdown record, watch this video.