Climate change An exceptionally large amount of ice melted in Greenland in one day – Melted ice could cover half of Finland with more than five centimeters of water

This is the third largest amount of ice that has melted in Greenland in one day since 1950.

In Greenland a large amount of ice melted on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

This is the third largest amount of ice that has melted in Greenland in one day since 1950. The largest volumes melted in 2019, and the second largest in 2012.

According to the researchers, the reason for the rapid melting was the warm air that had remained over Greenland due to a change in atmospheric circulation.

Ice 22 gigatonnes melted, of which 12 gigatonnes flowed into the sea. Ten gigatonnes were absorbed into the snow cover where it could re-freeze, said climate scientist Xavier Fettweis From the University of Liège, Belgium.

According to the researchers, there is so much melted ice that it could cover the entire U.S. state of Florida in about 5 inches of water. Florida covers about half of Finland’s area.

Although the amount of melted ice was lower than in 2019, when a record amount of ice melted per day, Wednesday’s melting covered a larger area.

Climate researcher Marco Tedesco from Columbia University in the United States says that melting can create a vicious circle that promotes warming and melting.

As the snow melts, darker ice or ground is exposed from below, absorbing sunlight into itself instead of reflecting the light back into the atmosphere.

“It puts Greenland in a more vulnerable position for the rest of the melting season,” Tedesco notes.

Greenland ice melting has caused scientists to estimate about 25 percent of the world’s sea level rise in recent decades.

Tedesco and other scientists have warned that models predicting ice melting do not take into account changes in atmospheric rotation. As a result, the rate of melting of the Greenland glacier may have been underestimated.

On Wednesday, an alarmingly high 23.2 degrees warm was measured east of Greenland.

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source https://pledgetimes.com/climate-change-an-exceptionally-large-amount-of-ice-melted-in-greenland-in-one-day-melted-ice-could-cover-half-of-finland-with-more-than-five-centimeters-of-water/