{"id":513125,"date":"2026-04-04T20:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/513125\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T20:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:41:07","slug":"billions-of-tons-of-greenland-ice-vanish-in-just-30-seconds-see-the-shocking-footage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/513125\/","title":{"rendered":"Billions of tons of Greenland ice vanish in just 30 seconds\u2014see the shocking footage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greenland\u2019s Ice Sheet: Melting at a Staggering Pace<\/p>\n

The Greenland ice sheet is now melting at what can only be called a wild pace, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, USA). This melt isn\u2019t just a matter of local interest; it\u2019s the second largest contributor to global sea level rise, right after thermal expansion of warming seawater (yes, even water wants to stretch out and relax as it gets warmer). For anyone who still needs a mental image: NASA satellite data shows Greenland is losing a net of 283 billion metric tons (gigatonnes) of ice each year. That\u2019s so large, NASA offers a graphic comparing a single gigatonne of ice<\/a> to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (Spoiler: the ice wins by a landslide).<\/p>\n

Bigger Than Sea Level: Worldwide Impacts<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more! Greenland\u2019s melting ice isn\u2019t just swelling oceans. It also profoundly affects global ocean currents and weather patterns everywhere\u2014from local communities in Greenland who rely on fishing and hunting for their livelihoods, to polar bears losing precious space to rest, and even to people on distant continents. These changes ripple through ecosystems and human societies. To help humanity adapt to climate change, scientists need to keep very close tabs on how this region is evolving. Enter two invaluable sources of satellite data: ESA\u2019s CryoSat mission (European Space Agency) and NASA\u2019s ICESat-2 mission.<\/p>\n

The Science: A Dual Satellite Dream Team<\/p>\n

CryoSat\u2019s radar system<\/a> is great at penetrating clouds and getting below the surface of Greenland\u2019s ice sheet. ICESat-2, on the other hand, uses laser signals that bounce off the ice\u2019s actual surface but doesn\u2019t work through clouds. Combine them, and for polar scientists, it\u2019s a bit like finding the Holy Grail\u2014a complementary set that lets them measure both surface and subsurface changes like never before.<\/p>\n

A research team led by the UK\u2019s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) has, for the first time, laid out the numbers in Geophysical Research Letters. Between 2010 and 2023, the Greenland ice sheet thinned by an average of 1.2 meters (about 4 feet). But in places where summer melt outpaces winter snowfall, the average thinning shot up to a whopping 6.4 meters (over 21 feet).<\/p>\n

Dramatic Losses: By the Numbers<\/p>\n

Data from ESA and NASA, using their two satellites in synchrony, revealed an agreed-upon figure: between 2010 and 2023, Greenland\u2019s ice sheet lost 2,347 cubic kilometers\u2014that\u2019s roughly as much water as Lake Victoria in Africa, the world\u2019s third-largest lake, holds! And that\u2019s not even the worst of it. At the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier in west-central Greenland (known internationally as Jakobshavn Isbr\u00e6), thinning hit 67 meters (about 220 feet). At Zachariae Isstr\u00f8m in the northeast, it reached a staggering 75 meters (246 feet).<\/p>\n

The satellites\u2019 nearly simultaneous orbits allowed researchers to merge radar and laser data from the exact same locations, offering unprecedented accuracy on snow depth and marine and terrestrial ice thickness from space. As Nitin Ravinder, CPOM scientist, highlighted in an ESA press release:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complementary nature of these two missions provides strong motivation to combine their datasets in order to produce better estimates of volume and mass variations of the ice sheet. As ice sheet mass loss is a key factor in global sea level rise\u2014as well as ecosystem and weather disruption\u2014this is incredibly valuable for the scientific community and policymakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sobering snapshot of rapid planetary change, brought into focus by cutting-edge science<\/a> and a pair of satellites working together to map what\u2019s melting beneath our very feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greenland\u2019s Ice Sheet: Melting at a Staggering Pace The Greenland ice sheet is now melting at what can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-513125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}