Greenland ice melt shocks scientists

Rising sea level – Climate models failed to foresee the acceleration, and the far-reaching effects are likely to bring more Northwest rain

KANGERLUSSUAQ, Greenland — The vast ice sheet that coats Greenland up to 2 miles thick is reacting to global warming far faster than scientists thought it would.

It makes some of them wonder whether they’ve underestimated the speed of changes a warmer climate brings.


A few decades ago, Greenland’s glaciers had little bearing on Oregon. Now they’re melting and sliding into the ocean quickly enough to measurably — though slightly — raise the sea level on the coast of Oregon and around the world.

It is the acceleration that stuns scientists. Greenland’s glaciers are adding up to 58 trillion gallons of water a year to the oceans, more than twice as much as a decade ago and enough to supply more than 250 cities the size of Los Angeles, NASA research shows.

That’s particularly unsettling because elaborate climate models that scientists use to estimate the effects of global warming did not foresee it. Scientists themselves never imagined Greenland’s ice, which holds enough water to raise sea levels 23 feet and sits in position to influence Northwest weather, would move so quickly.

The Oregonian