Nature and Environment
Massive ice melting in Greenland referred to as extraordinary
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
A new image from NASA has shown that in just four days there has been a
large Greenland ice melt in key areas, which jumped from 40 percent of
the ice sheet to 97 percent from 8 July.
Scientists said the "unprecedented" melting took place over a larger
area than has been detected in three decades of satellite observation.
Between
8 and 12 July there was something drastically wrong with the Greenland
ice cap. The images show that in just a few days, there was increased
melting rate from 40 percent to 97 percent.
The ice began to melt at Summit Station, Greenland's coldest and highest place. There it has not thawed since 1889.
News of the melting came just days after a massive iceberg broken
off in Greenland. Although about half of Greenland's ice sheet
normally sees surface melting over the summer months, the speed and
scale of this year's thaw surprised scientists, who described the
phenomenon as "extraordinary", reports the BBC.
"When we see melt in places that we haven't seen before, at least in a
long period of time, it makes you sit up and ask what's happening,"
Nasa chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said.
News link from Nasa
By Scancomark.se Team
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