Arctic Meltdown

Sermilik Fjord, Greenland — A climate tipping point is looming closer every day in the Arctic. The more we find out about the Polar Regions, the more we realise that what we know about the impact of feedback effects has been underestimated. Recent discoveries highlight the need for action now, before it’s too late.

Subtropical currents

A team of independent scientists on board the Arctic Sunrise is investigating whether warming subtropical ocean currents are causing Greenland glaciers to melt faster than before.

While the melt from warming temperatures is a known phenomenon, the influence of currents is less understood, and new research conducted by Dr Fiamma Straneo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic institution is groundbreaking. (Or, perhaps, "icebreaking"?)

"Over the last decade we've seen dramatic changes in the Greenland ice sheet; in particular there’s been a large loss of mass of ice from Greenland’s outlet glaciers. One of the mechanisms we think may have triggered these changes is the inflow of warm subtropical water inside of Greenland's glacial fjords," Dr Straneo said.

A (frozen) river runs through it

These currents could be causing the dramatic melt of Greenlandic glaciers. Dr Gordon Hamilton, of the University of Maine, has been studying the speed of flow of the Greenland glaciers, and in particular Helheim glacier.

Glaciers are like frozen rivers, with ice slowly moving downstream at an average of 50 meters per year. Helheim glacier is moving at the speed of 25 meters per DAY. Located further North, the Kangerdlugssuaq glacier moves at an average of 38 meters per day. This is opening the way for the Greenland ice sheet to flow out, melt in the Atlantic Ocean, and contribute to sea level rise.

"Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier is probably the world's fastest moving glacier. It tripled its speed between 2004 and 2005, which tells us the glacier is moving mass out of the middle of Greenland's ice sheet, in the form of icebergs, at a rate three times faster than just a few years ago. This has important implications for both the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet, and for the rate of global sea level rise," said Dr Hamilton.