PLEA Network

14 November 2015, Climate News Network, Greenland glaciers’ melting speeds up again. The increasing rate at which Greenland’s glaciers are melting this century has confounded polar scientists.  A massive Greenland glacier that holds enough water to raise sea levels by half a metre is melting at speed, according to a new study. The Zachariae Isstrom in northeast Greenland has entered a phase of accelerated retreat, and is losing mass at the rate of 5 billion metric tons a year, according to US scientists. They report in the journal Science that a succession of aerial surveys combined with multiple satellite observations has established that the base of the glacier is being eroded rapidly by a mix of warmer ocean water and increasing amounts of meltwater from the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. “North Greenland glaciers are changing rapidly,” said Jeremie Mouginot, an earth system scientist at the University of California, Irvine, who led the study. “The shape and dynamics of the Zachariae Isstrom have changed dramatically over the last few years. The glacier is now breaking up and calving high volumes of icebergs into the ocean, which will result in rising sea levels for decades to come.” Read More here