The ice lost by the glaciers of the Earth weighs up to 27 billion 747

Nine trillion metric tons.

This is the amount of ice that the Earth's glaciers lost over the 55 years between 1961 and 2016. An international team of scientists used satellite observations and direct field observations to conclude that terrestrial glaciers had melted such a quantity of ice over the last fifty years. They published their report Monday in the newspaper Nature.

Assuming an average weight of 735,000 pounds for a 747 airliner (not the huge Alaska bear), this will result in an ice loss of about 27 billion 747 during this period. .

This impressive figure also means that the planet loses an average of 335 billion tonnes of ice a year. (For reference, there are 2 trillion pounds of ice in just 1 billion tonnes.)

"In other words, every year we lose about three times the volume of ice stored in the European Alps, which is about 30% of the current rate of sea level rise," he said. Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich and lead author of the research, said in a statement.

The map below, developed by the European Space Agency, illustrates the places where this loss of ice has occurred. Alaska leads the race with more than 3019 gigatons lost, or 816 million 747.

The pronounced melting in Alaska is a small surprise. The polar regions of the Earth are the fastest warming region on Earth, two to three times faster than the rest of the world.

Overall, over 9 trillion tonnes of melted ice represent just over one inch of sea level rise, or 27 millimeters, over a 55-year period.

But above all, the melting of glaciers is not the only cause of sea level rise, it has also raised sea level by about 9 inches along parts of the east coast during of the last century. The ocean absorbs large amounts of heat and expands. Specifically, the absorbing oceans absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the rate of melting is expected to accelerate as the planet continues its accelerated warming trend, fueled by the highest levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide recorded for millions of years.

Projections of sea level rise by the end of the century range from two to three feet, although NASA scientists admit that it is almost certainly a problem. 39, a "conservative estimate". In more extreme scenarios, the number could be as much as six feet from here to 2100.

Only one region in the world, Southwest Asia, has grown in ice mass since the 1960s. But its neighbor, Southeast Asia, has lost a similar amount of ice, reversing these fleeting gains.

Overall, the picture is clear. Greenland is in hot water. Ice loss in Antarctica accelerates. The vast glaciers of the Himalayas have, at best, a disastrous future. And you do not have to be a scientist using sophisticated satellite technology to see what's happening on the Earth.

The famous Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska is disappearing in front of the public eye. In 1850, there were about 150 large glaciers in the current Glacier National Park. Today, there are 26 glaciers large enough to count.

The reason for this large-scale global change is not due to the vagaries of weather, natural variations, volcanoes or other factors that climatologists have taken into account for decades.

"We know this is due to global warming and the human emissions of these greenhouse gases," Mashable told NASA oceanographer Josh Willis, who observed Greenland melt into the sea. sea. "The basic physics of the planet in warming has been known for over a century."