Greenland ice-shelf melt may cause 2-meter sea level rise

Published in ‘Nature Communications’ on Tuesday, a study into Greenland’s huge northern glaciers found that melting of ice shelves may lift the sea levels by 2.1 meters, nearly 7 feet if the glaciers were to break down completely. The report suggests that since 1978, ice shelves in North Greenland have lost more than 35 per cent of their total volume, with three of them collapsing completely.
The study examines eight ice shelves, which act as floating extensions of Petermann, Steensby, Ryder, Ostenfeld, Hagen Brae, Zachariae Isstrom and Storstrommen/Bistrup Brae glaciers.
The authors of the study used thousands of satellite images, along with climate models and measurements from the field. The study describes the scientist’s methods stating, “We document the evolution of basal melting rates, calving fluxes, ice front/grounding line (GL) positions, ice shelf volume, velocity and discharge using a combination of multiple remote sensing datasets and outputs from a regional climate model. Finally, we use Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) measurements and an Arctic Ocean Physics Reanalysis (AOPR) to compare the ice shelves’ evolution with changes in ocean temperature.”
Over the eight main ice shelves, the floating extensions of Zachariae Isstrom, Ostenfeld and Hagen Brae completely collapsed between 2003 and 2010, the study shows. With the collapse of the Zachariae Isstrom glacier’s ice shelf in 2003, the ice discharge into the ocean doubled, accord