Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Greenland's ice is melting from the bottom up -- and far faster than previously thought, study shows
The Greenland ice sheet is roughly 2,400 kilometers long and 1,100 kilometers wide and covers 1.7 million square kilometers. The ice sheet is two to three thousand kilometers thick. It is the second-largest ice body after the Antarctic ice sheet. The Greenland ice sheet gives researchers records of past climate as it consists of layers of compressed snow from over 100,000 years. It is estimated that the ice sheet would completely melt should the temperatures rise two to three degrees Celsius, which would raise global sea levels by 7.2 meters. Recently, researchers found that the ice sheet is melting faster at its base and injecting more water into the ocean than previously thought. They think the gravitational potential energy of the melting water is converted to kinetic energy, which warms at the bottom of the ice sheet. It is like falling water from a hydroelectric dam generating electricity, but under the ice sheet, it just warms and melts the ice instead. Indeed, once energy is created, it needs to go somewhere or do something. In short, it was found that the Greenland ice sheet, and probably any other ice sheet, is also melting from the bottom up.
Enjoy reading the article and learning about how the massive ice sheet in Greenland is melting.
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