Greenland turns GREEN: An area of ice the size of Wales has melted over the past 30 years, revealing hidden fields of vegetation beneath it, research shows
Legend has it that an Icelandic murderer named Erik The Red was exiled to the largest island in the world in the 10th century.
Although the island was covered in white snow as far as the eye could see, he named it ‘Greenland’ in the hope that the name would attract settlers.
More than a thousand years later, the name might finally contain some truth.
Scientists say Greenland is turning green as its massive ice sheet melts, exposing the underlying vegetation.
Over the past thirty years, about 1.6 percent of Greenland’s total ice and glacier cover has melted – an area larger than Wales.
An estimated 11,000 square kilometers of Greenland’s ice sheet and glaciers have melted over the past thirty years, according to an extensive analysis of historical satellite data. Pictured, exposed land from above Sydgletscher looking towards Bowdoin Fjord, in Qaanaaq, northwestern Greenland
Over the past three decades, Greenland has become greener as vegetation cover has expanded, especially in the southwest and northeast
The new study was led by Dr. Jonathan Carrivick, an earth scientist based at the Faculty of Environment at the University of Leeds.
By analyzing high-resolution satellite images, Carrivick and colleagues estimate that 11,000 square miles (28,707 square kilometers) of Greenland’s ice sheet and glaciers have melted over the past thirty years.
“We had to use a collection of images from the early 1980s and early 2010s,” he told MailOnline.
“Images from individual years often have cloud or short-lived snow cover, so pixel by pixel we created a mosaic free of these conditions to identify land cover.”
The total area of ice loss – 11,000 square kilometers – is approximately the size of Albania or slightly smaller than the area of Belgium and slightly larger than Wales.
Dr. Carrivick said this loss is solely due to the Greenland ice sheet, which is often called land ice and does not cover the entire island.
Roughly speaking, the entire country of Greenland covers about 836,000 square kilometers, and the ice sheet covered 679,000 square kilometers in the 1980s – about 81 percent.
Now a loss of 11,000 square kilometers reduces total ice cover to 79 percent, which isn’t much of a difference in percentage terms, but in terms of size “it’s huge,” Dr. Carrivick said.
The total area of ice loss – 11,000 square kilometers – is approximately the size of Albania or slightly smaller than the area of Belgium and slightly larger than Wales. Pictured is scrub at the Russell Glacier and proglacial area, near Kangerlussuaq, western Greenland
Proglacial area of Fan Glacier, Qaanaaq, Northwest Greenland with braided proglacial flow
Where there was once ice and snow, there are now barren rocks, wetlands (areas saturated with water), and shrubs.
Over the thirty years, the amount of land covered by vegetation has increased by 87,475 km2, more than doubling over the study period.
Greenland has become greener as vegetation cover has expanded, especially in the southwest and northeast.
There is also significant ice loss in localized areas in the west, mid-northwest and southeast.
Experts also noted a fourfold increase in wetland coverage, an increase in meltwater and greater coverage of fine, loosely arranged sediment.
Melting ice is known to be a cause of rising sea levels, which could inundate cities this century.
But the fact that Greenland is turning from shiny white to a duller green also reduces its ‘albedo’: its ability to reflect sunlight.
Instead of the highly reflective white ice, the exposed plants and rocks have a lower albedo, meaning they absorb more of the sun’s energy instead of reflecting it.
This only increases the risk of the Earth becoming warmer, worsening climate change.
In addition to the sharply reduced ice cover, experts note a doubling of the total surface coverage of vegetation, a fourfold increase in wetland coverage, an increase in meltwater, a decrease in bare rock and an increased cover of fine, unconsolidated sediment.
Researchers found that the loss of Greenland’s ice is ‘strongly correlated’ with the number of days with an average temperature above 0°C between the 1980s and the present.
According to the team, the region has warmed twice as fast as the global average since the 1970s.
In Greenland, average annual air temperatures between 2007 and 2012 were 5.4°F 3°C warmer, compared to the 1979 to 2000 average.
And the researchers warn that even more extreme temperatures are likely in the future, with ‘profound consequences’.
“Land cover responses to climate change need to be quantified to understand the Arctic climate, manage Arctic water resources, maintain the health and livelihoods of Arctic societies, and for sustainable economic development,” they say in their article, published in Scientific reports.