Arctic Glaciers are shrinking by as much as 300 meters a year!

The Arctic is warming up faster than any other place on Earth. Scientists from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) near Oban have found how fast the Arctic glaciers are disappearing.  Their studies have focused on the west of the Svalbard archipelago in the Norwegian Arctic and they have been studying the area’s glaciers for two decades now.

A Scottish study team using robot submarines has found that the Arctic glaciers are reducing by as much as 300 meters in one year! That is huge! #ArcticGlaciers #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange Click To Tweet

Their startling finding – that the glaciers in the Arctic are shrinking by as much as 300m a year!  This further confirms how devastatingly fast the meltdown is now in Arctic.  A few years (2012) back we had shared the news – that Half of US 48 States area equivalent Arctic Ice has been lost this summer; all-time lowest ice!

This team has been using robot submarines to study the behavior of these glaciers under these warmer conditions prevalent today.  They have found how the warmer water is able to get closer to the icebergs to further the collapse.

“The warm water is there because of the shape of the seabed.  Water is able to get into the fjords, and that warmer water is promoting the collapse and therefore the retreat of this ice.” (source)

One disturbing thing they found was that contrary to their belief that cold, fresh meltwater will help prevent further melting of the glacier and keep the warm seawater away, it was actually not helping.  The cold fresh meltwater floats on the surface of the ocean, while the warm seawater is drawn to the front of the glacier thus accelerating the melting process.

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The growth in sea levels from the faster melting of the glaciers in the Arctic will be devastating.

“If you lose the Greenland ice cap, which is currently pinned by the glaciers, there’s this notional seven metre rise in sea levels,” he said. (source)

That’s almost 23 feet!  Just a couple of years ago, another study had predicted much less melting of the Arctic ice.  But whatever the actual number, the fact is that we are losing the main driver of our climate – the snow/ice on the glaciers faster than we can sustain it.  This can devastate the entire planet for our kids.

Seas are now rising an average of 3.2 millimeters per year globally, and are predicted to climb a total of 0.2 to 2.0 meters by 2100.  (source)

You see most of the Arctic’s land ice is locked up in Greenland which is 2.96 million cubic kilometers of ice!  And it is the one which is melting the fastest!

Can you imagine that rise in the sea levels near the coasts?  If the Arctic ice melts so fast, the entire North will be in a major existential crisis!