New York: Warmer water in ocean is eating into the ice, speeding up the melting of glaciers in Greenland.
A new satellite study of the Petermann Glacier in Greenland suggest that glacial areas exposed to warm water is melting with ice floating over it, according to scientists from the University of California at Irvine, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other institutions.
The study finds that the grounding line—the area where ice transforms from a glacier to a shelf floating above it in contact with seafloor—receded almost 2.5 miles from between 2016 and 2022.
The process allows warm water to seep into the glacier from below further eroding the edges, as per the study published in in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Eric Rignot, a co-author of the study, said that interaction between ice and ocean turns glaciers ‘more sensitive to ocean warming’.
The study’s findings cause concern as it dispels the belief among scientists that ice at a glacier’s grounding line is rigid and will not experience melting during tidal cycles.
Meanwhile, Greenland's ice sheet, which is three times the size of Texas, has already lost billions of tonnes of ice to warmer air from above, while warmer ocean water seeping into ice shelves and glaciers edges.
A previous study in 2022 found warmer air temperatures causing more meltwater flowing into the ocean which releases heat, speeding up glacial melt.
Even though what is happening to glaciers is of global importance, fewer scientists are studying this complex process, according to Bloomberg.