Breaking News!!>>Greenland Ice Cap Melt Is Accelerating Quickly!!

Greenland Ice Cap Melt Is Accelerating



Katie Stallard, in Greenland
A British research team studying the Greenland ice sheet has discovered evidence of a rapidly accelerating rate of melt.

Dr Alun Hubbard, leading a team from the universities of Swansea and Aberystwyth said the ice sheet in their region had lowered six metres in just a month.

The phenomenon is caused by surface melt, a vicious cycle in which melted ice brings about further thawing of the cap beneath it.

As the ice turns to liquid, its surface reflectivity decreases, absorbing more of the heat from the sun, and accelerating the melt.

Frozen ice has an "albedo", or reflectivity, of around 80%, whereas open water reflects only around 20% of the sun's rays.

Sky News flew in with the team to their base on the inland ice, near to the town of Kangerlussuaq.

The frozen crevasses of the fracturing ice sheet create an almost lunar landscape - a desolate horizon stretching in every direction as far as the eye could see.


Greenland's ice sheet holds 10% of the world's freshwater reserves - at its centre it is more than 3 km thick.

Its rate of reduction has tripled in the last ten years.

[link to news.sky.com]