After Greenland spent a good component part of Julyonfire , last week’sheatwavesimilarly scorch the country ’s ice tack , triggering a meltdown affecting roughly 60 pct of its surface . On Thursday alone , Modern datum show the ice shelf lost 12.5 billion rafts to open thawing , its largest single - twenty-four hours loss in record account , the Washington Post report .
It ’s not exactly the form of record you ’re well-chosen to see broken . More like terrified . The last metre Greenland had a nuclear meltdown this monumental was in 2012 , when its ice sheet send more than 10 billion tons of runoff into the ocean , accord to data from thePolar Portal .
Scientists come to this honestly alarming number based on estimator example estimates referencing satellite and other data point . Per the Washington Post , a older research worker at the National Snow and Ice Data Center , Ted Scambos , explains the process below :
Image: Sean Gallup (Getty)
“ This simulation , which use weather condition datum and reflection to construct a track record of ice and snowfall , and net variety in mass of the ice sheet , is remarkably exact . I would accept the result as fact . 12.5 billion gross ton [ lost ] in one day , and the high individual - day aggregate since 1950 . ”
That ’s as far back as data about the ice sheet ’s daily mass loss has been recorded . Satellite images include inGizmodo ’s coverageearlier this calendar week show how widespread the melting had become with snowmelt clearly visible at the ice sheet ’s edge . telecasting shared on Twitter also revealed that at one point melted runoff became so knockout it transformed into deposit - laden rivers of race water . The Washington Post reports that in total the ice sheet lost 197 billion scores of overspill during July .
This is a roaring arctic thaw , under the bridge circuit to Kangerlussiauq , Greenland where it ’s 22C today and Danish official say 12 billions tons of ice-skating rink melted in 24 60 minutes , yesterday.pic.twitter.com/Rl2odG4xWj
— Laurie Garrett ( @Laurie_Garrett)August 1 , 2019
As the warm weather subsides in the coming months , parts of Greenland ’s ice plane will tardily start out to solidify once more , but we ’ll be seeing the effects of that 12.5 billion tons of frappe it turn a loss to the ocean for much , much longer in mounting ocean level advance .
[ The Washington Post ]
clime changeGlobal warmingIce shelf
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