Greenland’s melting ice sheet could result in a global sea level rise of at least 10.6 inches — double of what was previously forecast, reveals a new study published yesterday.
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Reported first by AP, this occurrence is due to something dubbed zombie ice. To the unaware, zombie ice is attached to thicker areas of ice that are no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers which are now receiving less snow.
According to Willian Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, with the lack of replenishment, doomed ice is melting, due to climate change, resulting in the aforementioned sea level rise.
The study estimates are way more than previously expected — the study revealed the sea level rise could be as much as 30 inches. On the other hand, last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported the projection to be around two to five inches, caused by Greenland ice melt by the end of this century.
To get the recent numbers, researchers looked at the ice in balance. They saw that there was less replenishment of ice and more melting on the edges. And in the last few decades, this imbalance has only intensified. Based on analysis, researchers stated that around 3.3 percent of Greenland’s total ice volume will melt no matter how much the world tries to cut its carbon pollution.
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According to the researchers, around 120 trillion tons of ice is already doomed to melt from the warming ice sheet’s inability to replenish. If and when the ice melts into the water, if this was concentrated only over the US, it would be a good 11 meters deep.
Researchers don’t really know how long it could take for the ice to melt, but a good guess, based on data, is somewhere around the end of the century, maybe even 2150. Colgan highlighted that this is the best-case scenario.
The year 2012 was a huge melt year when more ice was melted than added. And if Earth experiences more years such as 2012, the melt in Greenland could even result in a sea rise of 30 inches.
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