Greenland ice sheet shrinking fast: NASA

[jpak]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-19T211218Z_01_N19397848_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-GREENLAND.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The vast sheet of ice that covers Greenland is shrinking fast, but still not as fast as previous research indicated, NASA scientists said on Thursday.

Greenland's low coastal regions lost 155 gigatons (41 cubic miles) of ice each year between 2003 and 2005 from excess melting and icebergs, the scientists said in a statement.

The high-elevation interior gained 54 gigatons (14 cubic miles) annually from excess snowfall, they said.

This is a change from the 1990s, when ice gains approximately equaled losses, said Scott Luthcke of NASA's Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory outside Washington.

<more>

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. We're up Sheet Creek.

[hatrack]

2. Well, that's only a three-to-one mass loss ratio

I'm sure there's at least a few more years of "studies" and "stakeholder surveys" yet to do!

:eyes: