But instead they waded through water, as the Greenland ice sheet lost a staggering one million tonnes per minute in 2019 – the worst loss in centuries. Satellite data shows the scale of its destruction is heating the Arctic at twice the rate at lower latitudes. The melting ice sheet has had a major impact on rising sea levels with the ice sheet shrinking last year by 532 billion tons when glaciers fell into the sea.
Data have been collected since 2003 and the devastating loss of 2019 was double the annual average of 255 billion tonnes – the majority was lost in July 2019.
Scientists blame it on “blocking patterns” of weather that keep warmer air over Greenland for extended periods. Ingo Sasgen, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, in Bremerhaven, Germany, who led the analysis, said that the melt “was not very surprising, because in 2010 and 2012 we had other strong melting years and I expect that we will have more and more will see “.
It is predicted that if the entire Greenland ice sheet melts, sea level would rise by 19 feet.
