Geology News
Greenland Current Events

“Last July, something unprecedented in the 34-year satellite record happened: 98 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s surface melted, compared to roughly 50 percent during an average summer.” Quoted from the CIRES press release.

“With data from 73 ice and sediment core monitoring sites around the world, scientists have reconstructed Earth’s temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.

“The International North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project results indicate that melting of the Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea level rise than melting of the Greeland ice sheet some 100,000 years ago.” Quoted from the NSF press release.

The edge of the Greenland ice sheet, near Kangerlussuaq. Peter West, NSF.

Princeton researchers have developed a method of measuring changes in Earth’s surface from satellite data. One of their applications was a cumulative map of Greenland’s ice loss between 2003 and 2012.

An article in the Alaska Dispatch reports on the first crew to sail from Greenland to Alaska through the Northwest Passage in a 31-foot sailboat with an unreinforced fiberglass hull.

GreenlandMelting.com has a collection of annual melt maps from 1979 through 2012 (updated periodically). Each map is accompanied by a yearly melt area graph (day of year vs. melt area?). View a sequence of these maps and decide for yourself if recent years show a trend.

“Researchers have found a way to use GPS to measure short-term changes in the rate of ice loss on Greenland – and reveal a surprising link between the ice and the atmosphere above it.” Quoted from the Ohio State University press release.

Melting across the Greenland ice sheet has some rivers flowing at flood levels. Earth Observatory has a satellite image of flooding along the Watson River near Kangerlussuaq. The meltwater is a gray color from being laden with rock flour.

“For several days this month, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface.”

NASA Earth Observatory has a satellite image of the enormous iceberg that recently calved from the Petermann Glacier on the northwest coast of Greenland.

“A chunk of ice twice the size of Manhattan has parted from Greenland’s Petermann glacier.” Quoted from the Washington Post article.

Eric Rignot and Jérémie Mouginot of the University of California, Irvine have produced a digital map of ice motion across Greenland using satellite measurments from Polar Year 2008-2009.

A deeply eroded impact crater on the western coast of Greenland is now thought to be Earth’s oldest impact scar. It is thought to have been 25 kilometers deep and 600 kilometers across immediately after impact, but erosion has reduced it to just 100 kilometers across.

Some researchers believe that the rate of glacial melting in Greenland has been significantly overestimated.

An article on the MSNBC Science website explains how a capsizing giant iceberg can produce a deadly tsunami.

The area above the Arctic Circle is underlain by sedimentary basins and continental shelves that hold enormous oil and natural gas resources. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic contains approximately 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil resources and about 30 percent of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources.

“In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth’s melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there.” Quoted from the Penn State press release.