Jonathan Amos

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Greenland 's huge Ice Sheet may be melted by a record amount this Year , scientists have warned.

this Year alone, it has Lost enough ice to raise the global average Sea Level by More Than a Millimeter.

researchers say they are "amazed" by the acceleration of the melting, and fear for The Future of the cities on the coasts around The World .

A glacier in southern Greenland has a recess, so much as 100 m, since I was The Last of it was filmed in 2004.

Interactive Qaleraliq glacier in southern Greenland 2018 1993 Why does Greenland have a role? In essence, because his ice cap is seven times the area of the UK and up to 2-3km thick in places. It saves so much frozen water That , if all melted, it would 7m of Sea Level worldwide by up to.

No One is suggesting That could happen, for hundreds or even thousands of years, But even a small increase in the rate of melting in the coming decades, a threat for millions of people in low-lying areas could.

Bangladesh, Florida, and the East of England to many of the areas known to be particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels in the course of The Century .

And though The Island of Greenland , extends from the North of The Atlantic ocean, high in The Arctic , whose fate could be flooding a large impact on the severity of The Future and change may also have coast lines and communities to move inland.

One of The Scientists That study the Ice Sheet , Dr. Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), says he is unnerved by the possible dangers That coastal planners need to "support themselves".

"Now, I'm starting to understand more of the consequences, it actually keeps me awake in the night, because I recognize the importance of this location around The World , and the foundations of life, which are already affected by sea-level Rise ," he told me.

Dr. Jason Box , Geological Survey of Denmark, How much Greenland is melting? Until recently, the ice cover was generally in a state of equilibrium the amount of snow in the winter was about the same size as the amount of ice melting in the Summer .

in The Last Year , there was actually a profit in the ice cream, But That was relatively unusual. Over The Last 30 years, decade-by-decade, Greenland has a tendency to shed more ice.

Either the ice melts on The Surface , sending masses of water down to the surrounding seas or huge chunks of ice break off from the margins and float away as icebergs to melt gradually.

in The Last few years, Lost hundreds of billions of tons of ice and a rough guide to the impact on Sea Level , which provides 362 billion tonnes of melt, the average Sea Level by one Millimeter.

This doesn't sound Like much, But in 2012 Greenland is the loss of a total of about 450 billion tonnes, and this Year the melt is on course to produce about the same or even a little more, with some researchers suggesting, But it could also raise the Sea Level by up to 2mm.

And on top of That , they expanded the factor of the ice melting in the Antarctic, plus the effect of water as it warms. It raises The Level of the oceans.

According to Dr. field, it is the recent increase in the average temperature, which is noticeable in the Greenland ice: "we have effectively a Death Sentence for the Greenland Ice Sheet , as also to go forward In Time and we expect temperatures to climb only," he said.

"So, we lose the Greenland - it is really A Question of how quickly. "

How quickly the ice cover is changed? I have seen first hand what happens to a corner. Sermilik glacier at the southern end of Greenland is the largest But it has to rank as one of the fastest-shrinking flows of ice anywhere in The World .

in order To reach it, in the Year 2004, we flew the towering cliffs of ice That are in front of the glacier, a huge wall of light grey and blue, high above The Sea .

at the time, we accompanied a scientist who reviewed the instruments positioned on the ice, and he was amazed to see, how The Surface of the glacier was over, as much as a metre every month.

And in The Last 15 years, That the rate of shrinkage has become aggressive so That they smash on a return visit the same glacier, the ice looks faded, and is far less dominant in the landscape.

Jason Box is with me, and he collects the most recent measurements, which show That the has shrunk this Summer alone, the glacier, by an estimated 9m. "This is an amazing rate of loss," he said.

Since my last visit, The Surface of The Edge of the Ice Sheet reduced by an extraordinary 100m, More Than cut in half, in thickness, exposing the rest of the ice at the relatively warm temperatures of the lower altitudes.

What happens to the ice cream itself? While you may think of The Arctic as a pristine white landscape, the surprising feature of The Surface , how dirty it looks. To feel foot on it as the arrival on The Moon .

There are large areas of pale grey and smaller patches That are much darker, covered with what appears to be mud or silt, it is a grim and rather depressing Sight .

Algae to grow on the Sermilik glacier previously it was thought That this darkness was mainly carried out due to a mixture of dust and pollution particles on the winds of far-flung power plants, and industrial centers.

But since my last visit to Sermilik glacier, scientists made a major breakthrough in the understanding That a major cause for the darkening is, in fact, biological - Algae ,

By turning The Surface gray or black, from his usual bright white, the Algae make it less reflective so That it absorbs more of The Sun 's rays. This speeds up the warming and, in turn, leads to even more melting.

anyone Who has tried to find out what is going on??? With the stakes so high for so many millions of people around The World , Greenland , is The Target of a major International Research effort, the satellite, the monitoring of the flights and expeditions on the ice itself.

The US Space Agency , Nasa, has for years projects, to melt the exactly what the ice is caused to run and what may happen in The Future .

Back in 2005, I reported on a Nasa-funded team, made an important discovery about The Movement of the Ice Sheet .

Although the great mass of ice That looks motionless, it is actually always tip downwards in the direction of the coast, and The Team found out That this movement has doubled the speed in the Summer months, when the melting water from The Surface works its way down the ice and helps it slide along.

Another revelation is That the ice only to melt, to reach by air, as the atmosphere heats up, But also by warmer water from under the fronts of the glacier. A Nasa scientist describes the ice as under a hair dryer, and at the same time, this also on a stove.

And Jason Box and his colleagues from GEUS operate a network of sensors on the ice to record details such as The Height of The Surface and its reflectivity, and to change the way they are.

the biggest challenge for The scientific community, the understanding can range from the mechanisms of the ice offer, the reliable forecasts of sea-level Rise is.

Dr. Masashi Niwano, a researcher with the Japan Meteorological Agency, is just back from a trip to collect data to try to validate his computer simulations of the ice.

"The Ice Sheet mass decreases - That is for sure. And these results to the global Rise in Sea Level - this is also very safe," he said.

"But maybe there are different physical processes, which we do not understand, so the development of The Future projections is very difficult. "

What the people in Greenland have to make all of this? There are only 56,000 Greenlanders, and They Live in communities, perched on The Narrow strip of land on The Edge of the Ice Sheet , which is in the vicinity, usually from the eyes.

Inutsiaq Ibsen, 18, Well-Theresia Høegh, 19, and Caroline Hartmann Hansen, 21, in Qaqortoq In The Village of Narsaq, Christian Mortensen , told me a glacier That was visible when he was younger, has then, and the icebergs seem to break "more and more" in the floods.

would allow for Warmer conditions, more about agriculture and how we talk, cattle graze all around us in the pasture, driving in addition to bright white chunks of ice in The Sea .

But for some young Greenlanders Climate Change is always a big Problem, partly because of the impact of "their" ice cream on other areas of The Planet .

Naja-Theresia Høegh, who just finished school, was inspired to run by the Swedish activists Greta Thunberg , a climate strike in their town of Qaqortoq, a pretty harbour of brightly painted houses.

describes a boat tour to The Edge of the pack ice, where you found it "amazing and scary" That so much water could flow down.

"All of That to end up in our waters, in The Sea , and the rest of The World and, if this continues, it will be declared one day, just over a whole country," Ms Høegh.

greenland, our planet matters, earth science, long reads, glaciers, greenland ice loss, climate change

Source of news: bbc.com