According to a new study published in The Cryosphere, Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017.
The above study calculates all the ice lost in the world over the past decades. As a result, the rate of ice melt on Earth is occurring faster than it was 30 years ago, due to climate change causing the global temperature to rise. This is the first time that a comprehensive analysis of the state of ice melt on Earth has been carried out, including the situation of glacial melt in Greenland and Antarctica, in the seas and mountains of the Arctic. , said the authors. Antarctica as well as the world.
The study combines measurements from a variety of sources, mainly parameters provided by satellite, site observations and digital models. Research results show that ice is disappearing around the world and most of this damage is caused by climate change.
The temperature of the Earth is increasing, causing a decrease in the area of mountain glaciers, from the European Alps to the Himalayas in Asia or to the Andes in South America. Research shows that mountain glaciers around the world have lost nearly 10,000 billion tonnes of ice since the 1960s and that this melting point is increasing rapidly over time. Almost 6 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared since the 1990s alone. Since the 1990s, Antarctica has lost over 2.6 trillion tonnes of ice and Greenland has lost nearly 4 trillion tonnes.
Recent studies have shown that warm currents cause glaciers to melt in the Antarctic direction from below the riverbed towards the surface, and more ice drift towards the sea. Meanwhile, in Greenland, a similar situation is occurring. produced, but more than half of the ice loss in Greenland is due to surface melt or melting at the top of the ice cap. The increase in air temperature is the main cause of the melting of the surface of the ice caps.
The rapid melting of ice in Antarctica, Greenland and in glaciers over the past three decades has been a major cause of sea level rise around the world. The new study estimates that the global average sea level has risen by more than 3.4 centimeters since 1994.
Global temperatures have risen by about 1.1 ° C since pre-industrial times. However, in the Arctic, the rate of temperature increase has doubled from the global average over the past 30 years.
Antarctic ice shelves have lost more than 8.6 trillion tonnes of ice since the 1990s. This ice does not raise sea level because the ice floats above water. However, when the ice shelves shrink, they destabilize the glaciers and contribute to further losses.
