Greenland has lost 1 trillion tonnes of ice more than estimated so far, and continues to lose ice at the rate of 40 million tonnes every hour. The cause is global warming and its impact on the oceans. Warmer waters have contributed to the melting of Greenland’s glaciers.
These data were calculated by a group of US researchers and published in Nature. In particular, they were able to count the melting of glaciers that are already below the sea surface. Generally speaking, measurement methods are used that are only effective in quantifying the loss of glacial mass at the surface. The authors of the research sifted through thousands of satellite images, estimating the glacial ablation occurring below the sea surface.
The consequences are explained by the authors of the study: ‘The mass loss we report had a minimal direct impact on global sea level, sufficient to affect ocean circulation and thermal energy distribution worldwide.