Ice Sheet Loss in Greenland is Now Irreversible

The warming ocean waters are irreversibly losing the ice in Greenland. Satellite data gathered for almost four decades have shown that the glaciers on Greenland have been shrinking to the point that even if climate change stopped right now, its ice sheet would continue to shrink.

Troubling Study

This is the result of a study published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment journal. It shows that the glaciers are already beyond a certain tipping point, so that snow that rebuilds lost ice is not enough to replenish the lost amount and melted.

According to Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center Ohio State University researcher and lead study author Michaela King, they studied the observations from remote sensing data to see the trends in variations in the replenishment and loss of ice. She says that they discovered that the ice being lost into ocean waters is much higher than the snowfall, which helps rebuild the ice sheet.

The research team looked into the monthly data from satellite observations of over two hundred large glaciers that drain ocean waters around the island.

The study authors discovered that in the 1980s up to the 1990s, accumulation and melting were generally balanced, which kept intact the existing ice sheets. During that time frame, the amount of 450 gigatons or roughly 450 billion tons lost ice has been replaced by snow.

READ: NASA Satellites Show Two Canadian Arctic Polar Ice Caps Gone as Predicted in 2017

The Balance is Tipped

King said that this all changed when a large increase in the discharge of the ice occurred for five to six years. They observed how the discharged ice going into the waters began to increase circa 2000 steadily. By this time, glaciers have been losing ice of about 500 gigatons per year.

Meanwhile, the snow did not increase, which means that ice is lost is higher than the frost being replenished. According to King, by the year 2000, progressively higher losses have been seen.

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According to King, the large glaciers on the island have lost three kilometers of the area from 1985, which is significant. Because of this retreat, many glaciers now sit in much deeper ocean water, bringing them into more contact with warmer waters and melting them even more.

Irreversible Effects

The implication is that even if global warming is somehow halted right now, the ice that is draining into the warmer ocean will still be higher than the frost replenished from the snow. Thus, the shrinking of the ice sheet will continue.

Ohio State University distinguished university scholar and earth sciences professor and study co-author Ian Howat said that warming has disrupted the dynamics of balanced loss and replenishment and turned the system into a continuous loss.

In 2019, the ice melting in Greenland caused a 2.2-millimeter rise in sea levels within only two months.

The Silver lining

However, King said that it is positive that they are learning a lot from the glacier so that they can improve predictions and help them crafting mitigation and adaptation strategies.

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