Greenland melt speeding up

Greenland’s ice sheet is melting much more quickly than scientists had estimated, and the pace has speeded up lately, according to research published last week.

An analysis of satellite observations shows the rate of ice loss rose 250 per cent between the periods April 2002 to April 2004 and May 2004 to April 2006, most of it in southern Greenland.

The ice sheet is now shrinking by about 248 cubic kilometers each year, which is equivalent to a rise in sea level around the world of 0.5 millimetres.

The findings, based on data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite, and published in Nature magazine, are consistent with earlier results showing increased melting.

Greenland’s ice sheet is so huge that if it melted entirely sea levels across the world would rise by about seven metres.