Greenland's Melting Ice Sheet: Causes and Consequences

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have discovered that warm ocean water is causing the migration of the grounding line of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, leading to its rapid deterioration. The team used satellite radar data from three European missions to learn that the grounding line shifts substantially during tidal cycles, allowing warm seawater to intrude and melt ice at an accelerated rate. The researchers found that including these dynamics in models could increase projections of sea level rise by up to 200% for all glaciers ending in the ocean, which is most of northern Greenland and all of Antarctica.