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A colossal river of ice, Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, is disintegrating at astonishing speed. Since the early 2000s, their melting rate has tripled. Rising tides threaten to flood coastal cities and displace millions of people around the world.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine (ICU), and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have pointed out the intrusion of warm ocean water beneath the glacier as a key factor.
Changing with the tides
At first, scientists were baffled by how quickly the Petermann Glacier was losing ice. That’s when they made a remarkable discovery: the glacier is not fixed in place. Instead, it moves for miles with the changing tides.
“The satellite data revealed that the glacier moves several kilometers (or thousands of feet) as the tides change,” explained Ratnakar Gadi, a UCI doctoral candidate and lead author of the study.
The team mapped this mass movement and its impact on the ice. What they found changes our entire understanding of how glaciers interact with the ocean.
The grounding zone
While scientists are used to thinking about the impact of warming air temperatures on ice, the real action happens below the surface. Warmer seawater is making its way far below the Petermann Glacier, thinning from below.
The researchers found the highest melting rates in a crucial area called the “grounding zone.” This area is where the glacier goes from resting on land to floating in seawater.
“Sea water rises and falls with changes in ocean tides in that area and vigorously melts the ice from below,” said study lead author Eric Rignot, a UCI professor of Earth system science. And scientists discovered that the shape of this area greatly contributed to the rapid melting.
Modeling the melting of the Petermann Glacier
To unravel the relative impact of warmer water versus the changing stranding zone, the UCI-led team relied on a sophisticated computer model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When they only accounted for warmer ocean temperatures, the glacier shrank by about 40 meters. But when they incorporated the expansion of the stranding zone, the modeled ice loss skyrocketed to 140 meters, more than triple.
Implications of the study
The study paints a much bleaker picture of the glacier’s future and highlights a fundamental shift in our understanding of ice-ocean interactions. The grounding zone, once considered a less important factor, is now considered critical.
Glaciers like Petermann are losing their grip on land and receding due to underwater melting. And withdrawal has a cascading effect.
“The results published in this paper have important implications for ice sheet modeling and sea level rise projections,” Rignot said.
“Previous numerical studies indicated that including melt in the stranding zone would double glacier mass loss projections. The modeling work in this study confirms these fears. “Glaciers are melting into the ocean much faster than previously assumed.”
Information about the melting glacier
The melting rate of Greenland’s Petermann Glacier is a stark reminder that climate change is not a distant threat; Its impacts are being felt right now. While the details are complex, the conclusion is simple: the ice is melting, the seas are rising.
Every bit of warming and every kilometer of ice lost pushes coastal communities around the world to the brink. The consequences are immense and require urgent measures.
More about Petermann Glacier
Petermann Glacier is a large glacier located in northern Greenland. It is particularly notable for its floating ice tongue, which is one of the largest floating glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere. The glacier is named after the German cartographer August Heinrich Petermann.
Climate change indicator
Like many glaciers around the world, the Petermann Glacier serves as an important indicator of climate change. Scientists study changes in ice size and melting patterns to understand the broader impacts of global warming on polar ice and sea levels.
Major birth events
The glacier has experienced significant calving in recent years, where large sections of the ice tongue have broken off.
Notable events occurred in 2010 and 2012, when huge islands of ice broke off from the glacier. These events attracted global attention and highlighted concerns about the stability of polar ice in a warming world.
Research and monitoring
The glacier is an active site for scientific research and monitoring. Researchers use satellite images, remote sensing technologies and in situ measurements to study glacier dynamics, ice thickness and ice melt rate.
These studies are crucial to understanding not only the fate of the Petermann Glacier but also the broader implications for global sea level rise.
Ecological importance
The area around the glacier is important habitat for a variety of Arctic wildlife, including polar bears, seals and several bird species. Changes to the glacier and surrounding ice can have significant impacts on these ecosystems.
The study is published in the journal. Geophysical research letters.
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