"Extraordinary" Greenland ice sheet melt surprises scientists

For the first time in 30 years of satellite monitoring, nearly all of Greenland’s ice sheet is thawing. NASA reports that 97% of the ice sheet, even the two-mile-thick centre, experienced some surface melting – an event so unusual that researchers initially suspected a data error. On average, only half of the ice sheet experiences melting in the summer.

An iceberg viewed from the ship.© Students on Ice / WWF

This news comes as WWF staff and researchers are travelling up the coast of Greenland to explore the “Last Ice Area”, the region in northern Greenland and Canada where sea ice is projected to last the longest in a warming Arctic. Over the next six weeks, researchers will assess the changing wetlands on Greenland’s coast, verify satellite measurements of ice, and study the marine microbiology of the high Arctic.
Video: The crew of the Last Ice Area voyage encounter ice calved from Ilulissat’s glacier:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MllVKewi8ms&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
The researchers say that this unusual event, like the enormous iceberg calved from the Petermann glacier last week, is part of a complex story. “Ice cores from Summit show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this event is right on time,” researcher Lora Koenig said. “But if we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome.”