GRL Study - Greenland's Peripheral Glaciers Contribute Far More To Sea-Level Rise Than Thought
Mar. 18, 2013 — Glaciers at the edge of Greenland which are not connected to its huge ice sheet, or can be clearly separated from it, are contributing to sea-level rise much more than previously thought. Scientists from the University of Zurich together with colleagues from Denmark have found that, though these peripheral glaciers make up just 5-7 % of total ice coverage on the land mass, they account for up to 20% of the rise in sea level created by the region's melting.
The scientists looked at glaciers which behave independently from the ice sheet, despite having some physical connection to it, and those which are not connected at all.
The discovery, just published in Geophysical Research Letters, is important as it will help scientists improve the predictions of the future contribution of Greenland's ice to sea-level rise.
Using lasers which measure the height of the ice from space, and a recently completed inventory of Greenland's glaciers and ice caps, scientists from the European-funded ice2sea programme, were able to determine changes in the mass of those ice bodies, separate from the main ice sheet.
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