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Greenland's Ice Sheet Rapidly Retreated Over 60 Miles Due to Massive Flood
· Confirmed
In Short: Scientists have uncovered a surprising event where a massive flood of subglacial lakewater burst through Greenland's ice sheet, causing it to retreat over 60 miles, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Scientists have uncovered a surprising event where a massive flood of subglacial lakewater burst through Greenland's ice sheet, causing it to retreat over 60 miles, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The event was unexpected and caught researchers by surprise. When they first observed it, they thought there might be an issue with their data. However, as they delved deeper into their analysis, it became clear that what they were seeing was the aftermath of a huge flood of water escaping from underneath the ice.
The flood occurred over just ten days in 2014, causing a 278-feet-deep crater to open up across a 0.7-square-mile area, resulting in the release of 23 billion gallons of water.
Greenland is capped with a vast ice sheet that spans 1.7 million square kilometers (656,000 square miles) and measures more than 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) at its thickest point.
Using the technique, researchers manually mapped 1,943 subglacial valleys beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, about a third of which are newly identified.
The discovery of this massive flood highlights the fierce power being stored in meltwater lurking beneath a thick sheet of ice. It also defies predictions of how the Greenland ice sheet evolves over time, even when taking climate change and the accelerating melting of ice sheets into consideration.
About 416,000 years ago, the ground beneath Greenland’s Camp Century was exposed to the sky, indicating a period of warmer summers that helped push Greenland’s ice more than 60 miles back from its current edge.
The type of molecular analysis used in this study is something researchers do all the time, but interpreting the results was unusually challenging. They had to account for how the land’s elevation changed as the ice sheet grew and melted, which affects how temperatures can be compared across time.
The existence of subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet is still a relatively recent discovery, and this study shows there is still much we don’t know about how they evolve and how they can impact the ice sheet system.
The event also underscores the need to better understand how often subglacial lakes drain and what the consequences are for the surrounding ice sheet.
What this adds
The event highlights the impact of climate change on the Greenland ice sheet and the need for better monitoring and understanding of subglacial lakes.
Background
Scientists discovered a massive flood of subglacial lakewater caused Greenland's ice sheet to retreat over 60 miles, highlighting the impact of climate change.
Scientists discovered a massive flood of subglacial lakewater caused Greenland's ice sheet to retreat over 60 miles, highlighting the impact of climate change.
What's confirmed
- As global warming continues to threaten the Earth’s polar ice sheets, scientists are hopeful that these kinds of measurements can give us a better sense of how human activity is actively reshaping the planet.
- The event also defies our predictions of how the Greenland ice sheet evolves over time, even when taking climate change and the accelerating melting of ice sheets into consideration.
- Sediment beneath a secret Cold War base reveals a time when warmer summers helped push Greenland’s ice more than 60 miles back from its current edge.
- Greenland is capped with a vast ice sheet that spans 1.7 million square kilometers (656,000 square miles) and measures more than 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) at its thickest point.
- Using the technique, researchers manually mapped 1,943 subglacial valleys beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, about a third of which are newly identified.
- Over just ten days in 2014, they watched as a 278-feet-deep crater opened up across a 0.7-square-mile area, causing 23 billion gallons of water to flood out.
- During drilling in the 1960s, researchers recovered sediment from nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) below the surface.
What's still developing
- In addition to the volcano, the authors discovered a 5,000-km2 (1930 square mile) area of volcanic deposits within the volcano’s perimeter presenting a large number of low, rounded and elongated, blister-like mounds.
- A scientist who spent decades convincing colleagues that the Antarctic ice sheet could serve as a telescope has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- This map shows locations of the perennial aquifer on the Greenland ice sheet detected by radar and cores in 2011.
- Scientists found the reservoir while drilling in southeast Greenland in 2011 to study snow accumulation.
- J. 7 216 Gilbert-Janizek didn't start from scratch.
- Trump has described the arrangement as giving the US "permanent control" over security in Greenland and said Washington would begin developing a larger military presence on the island.
- Now, the US president says Washington has secured a deal giving it permanent control over Greenland's security, while Denmark and Greenland insist that sovereignty remains where it is.
- Feels like: 15.8°C 15.8°F | Patchy rain nearby Greenland's parliament has approved a defense agreement with the United States and Denmark that would allow an expanded American military presence on the Arctic island.
- The agreement will enter into force once the United States receives official notification that both Greenland's and Denmark's parliaments have approved it.
- Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland.