12 billion tons of water

[Recursion]

12 billion tons of water melted off of Greenland (EDIT) in one day last month.

Just to melt that water, not to get it up to temperature but just to change its state to liquid, required 4 exajoules of energy. I put that in bold because "exa-" is a prefix people don't get to use much. 4 * 10^18.

The flux capacitor from Back to the Future supposedly ran at 1.21 gigawatts, because that was a ludicrous power draw in the 1980s. 4 exajoules would power it for over a century.

4 exajoules is about 1000 Megatons of TNT, or roughly 20 Tsar Bombas. That's 2000 times the US total power production in the month.

[Delphinus]

1. It is

almost impossible to put this into terms that most folks can comprehend.

[Recursion]

3. Yes, thanks. Editing (nt)

[Triloon]

4. I believe that figure was 12 billion tons of ice, not gallons of water, and it

occurred on one day, last Wednesday I think it was.
"More than 11 billion U.S. tons of ice was lost to the oceans by surface melt on Wednesday alone, creating a net mass ice loss of some 217 billion U.S. tons from Greenland in July"
[link:https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2019/0802/Greenland-ice-melt-to-increase-as-heat-wave-continues|
The numbers are boggling. The enormous scale of the problem is what is so difficult for people to grasp I think.

[Recursion]

5. Yeah, I had too many mixed units on my cocktail napkin

12 billion tons in one day (weight doesn't change on melting so it's also 12 billion tons of water) requires 4 exajoules at a constant temperature.

[Triloon]

8. It would have taken me several napkins. Thanks for doing the math.

It is hair-raising.

[panader0]

6. 12 billion tons in 24 hours. That's a lot more than 12 billion gallons.

12 billion times 2000 divided by 8 (lbs per gallon).
In 24 hours. How much is that?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212339344

[Recursion]

7. I had done the calculation for tons but typed gallons for some reason

Way too many mixed units here, but the order of magnitude is the point.

[panader0]

9. it's mindboggling and scary....

[Demovictory9]

10. Is that bad?

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. It is if you live close to the ocean.

It will also play havoc with the weather .