The heatwave generates a “massive” melting of the ice cap in Greenland :: El Litoral – News – Santa Fe – Argentina

A heat wave in Greenland, with temperatures more than 10 degrees above normal, this week caused a “massive” melting of the Greenland ice sheet, warned glaciologists.

Since Wednesday, the ice sheet covering the Arctic territory has melted by some 8 billion tonnes every day, double the average rate during the summer period, according to data from Polar Portal, a modeling tool managed by research institutes. Danish.

According to the Danish meteorological institute DMI, unusual temperatures of over 20 degrees have been recorded in northern Greenland in recent days, with local records.

At the small Nerlerit Inaat airport in northeast Greenland, the temperature reached 23.4 degrees on Thursday, the highest since the weather station started recording records and above the maximum temperature recorded in Denmark That day.

This heat wave, which also affected much of the vast arctic territory, accelerated the rate of melting of the ice sheet.

For comparison, the immense volume of water melted every day in recent days – 8 billion liters of fresh water – “would be enough to cover the entire surface of Florida with two inches of water,” says Polar Portal .

Greenland’s daily melting record, which dates to summer 2019, has not been broken, but the part of the territory where the ice melted is larger than two years ago, the monitoring site said. ‘Arctic, according to the AFP news agency.

The second ice cap after Antarctica, covering an area of ​​nearly 1.8 million square kilometers, the ice cap that covers Greenland worries scientists because the warming in the Arctic is three times faster than in the rest of the world.

According to a European study published in January, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will contribute to the overall sea level rise of 10 to 18 centimeters by 2100, 60% faster than the previous estimate.

The Greenland ice sheet contains enough of it to raise the oceans 6 to 7 meters.

Due to a relatively cool start to the summer with snowfall and rain, the retreat of the ice sheet in 2021 is still within the historical average, according to Polar Portal.

The thaw period extends from June to early September.

With information from Telam