Greenland, a frozen landmass experienced torrid climate when 40% of the area experienced melting inside a week, reports CNN.
This, despite the fact that the melting months in Greenland run from June to August and most of the ice melting taking place in August, is a scary indicator from Mother Nature.
A Twitter handle calculating the surface mass budget of the Greenland ice sheets in real time, tweeted this for an in-depth explanation:
According to The Washington Post, it takes 360 gigatons of ice to melt and raise the global sea level by 1 millimeter.
While, Greenland single-handedly contributed 2 gigatons, it ain’t alone in doing so. Antarctica and the Arctic too add to the rising sea levels.
According to Thomas Mote, a research scientist at the University of Georgia, the sudden spike “is unusual, not unprecedented.” He further spoke to CNN, referring to the record-setting melt year in 2012 and said:
It is comparable to some spikes we saw in June of 2012 and all signs seem to be pointing to a large melt season. Greenland has been an increasing contributor to global sea level rise over the past two decades and surface melting and runoff is a large portion of that.
It can be noted that this much melting in the summers can be a terrible sign for our planet. This can possibly lead to a new record for loss of ice caps and glaciers in Greenland in 2019.