Greenland's ice loss nearly tripled in a decade
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/16/northeast-greenlands-ice-loss-triples/6385095/
Wendy Koch, USA TODAY 3:49 p.m. EDT March 16, 2014
A formerly stable part of Greenland's ice sheet in the northeast has been losing ice at an accelerating rate.
Surface water rushes along the surface of the Greeland ice sheet July 4, 2012.(Photo: Ian Joughin, AP)
Sea levels will probably rise more now that the last remaining stable portion of Greenland's ice sheet the world's second-largest is no longer stable, a study says.
Scientists have known Greenland's ice sheet has been thinning for decades, but for the first time, they've found that's even occurring in its northeast region that had been stable for 25 years. Since 2003, the northeast's ice loss has nearly tripled.
"We're seeing an acceleration of ice loss," says study co-author Michael Bevis, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University. "Now, there's more ice leaving than snow arriving." He says the rapid change in the northeast region "surprised everyone."
The decline of Greenland's ice sheet, which is second in size only to Antarctica's and covers 80% of Greenland's surface, has been a major contributor to global sea level rise over the past 20 years. The study, published Sunday in the journal Natural Climate Change, says it's accounted for nearly one-sixth of annual sea level rise.
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