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NASA: Greenland's Glaciers Are Shrinking
A new study suggests that rapid thinning and excess run-off from Greenland's southeastern glaciers may be partly caused by climate changes.
By GSReport
Start Date: 3/10/99
A NASA press release dated March 4, 1999 says that a new study shows Greenland's southeastern glaciers are rapidly thinning and their lower elevations may be particularly sensitive to potential climate changes.
In the March 5 issue of Science magazine, researchers reported that the glacial thinning is too large to have resulted from increased ice-surface melting or decreased snowfall. The researchers believe the thinning, as much as 30 feet over five years in some locations, is the result of increasing discharge speeds of glaciers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.
Bill Krabill, principal investigator at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, said that the study shows an apparent increase in the flow of ice from so-called outlet glaciers, which literally drain Greenland's ice sheet into the sea. The increased flow rate of these outlet glaciers could begin to have a measurable impact on sea level, Krabill said.
"Why they are behaving like this is a mystery," said Krabill, "but it might indicate that the coastal margins of ice sheets are capable of responding quite rapidly to external changes, such as a potential warming of the climate."
The researchers noted that areas of thinning in the eastern part of Greenland also saw warmer than normal temperatures for 1993 to 1998. "However, we also observe areas of thinning near the West coast, where many locations were cooler than normal," the researchers reported. [GSReport thanks Joe Murgia for sending this information.]
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