The kilometres-thick icesheet that covers Greenland saw a near-record imbalance last year between new snowfall and the discharge of meltwater and ice into the ocean, scientists have reported. A net loss of 600 billion tonnes was enough to raise the global watermark 1.5 millimetres, about 40 percent of total sea level rise in 2019. The Greenland icesheet—which, until the end of the 20th century accumulated as much mass as it shed—holds enough frozen water to lift the world’s oceans by seven metres. Almost as alarming, however, as the icesheet’s accelerating disintegration are the forces driving it, the authors reported this week in The Cryosphere, a peer-reviewed journal published by the European Geosciences Union. More than half the dramatic loss in 2019 was due not to warmer-than-average air temperatures but rather unusual high-pressure weather systems linked to global warming.
Phys.org 16th April 2020 read more »