German glaciologists (ice experts) from the Alfred Wegener Institute have discovered new evidence of large-scale melting of a glacier in northeastern Greenland. In one place, meltwater was washed with ice through a channel with walls up to 500 meters high. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Cryoshpere.
According to scientists, high air temperatures lead to the formation of lakes on the surface of the ice sheet. Then the water accumulated inside them comes out and flows into the ocean.
As observations show, since 1998 the thickness of the floating part of the glacier has decreased by an average of 160 meters, losing 32% of its original level.
Researchers attribute these changes to warm ocean currents in the space beneath the floating tongue and the flow of meltwater at the surface as a result of atmospheric heating. An unexpected discovery was that the ice melt rate has decreased since 2018. One possible reason for this is cooler ocean flow.
Experts believe that the shelf part of the glacier will break up in the next few decades.
Previous scientists learned Predicting the weather based on the rate at which Greenland ice is melting.