AFP/Getty Images/NASA
NASA satellite images showed the extent of surface melt on Greenland's ice sheet on July 8 (L) and July 12 (R). Measurements showed that on July 8 about 40% of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. By July 12, an estimated 97% of the ice sheet surface had thawed.
This month, over a rapid four day period, the ice sheet that covers Greenland melted more than it ever has in the last 30 years, NASA reported.
Each summer about half the ice sheet naturally melts before refreezing or running off into the ocean, but in the last few days the melt has impacted an estimated 97% of the ice sheet, according to satellite data.
Scientists are not yet sure how this rapid melt—jumping from 40% ice sheet melt to 97% melt in four days—will affect the summer's total ice sheet loss or sea levels.
Unusually strong warm air, also known as a heat dome, has engulfed Greenland since May before beginning to dissipate July 16, NASA said in a statement regarding the images.
Time spoke to NASA's chief scientist Waleed Abdalati who said this kind of melt "makes you sit up and ask what's happening."
"It's a big signal, the meaning of which we're going to sort out for years to come," he continued.
From Time:
About the same time, a giant iceberg broke off from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. And the National Snow and Ice Data Center on Tuesday announced that the area filled with Arctic sea ice continues near a record low.Wagner and other scientists said because this Greenland-wide melting has happened before they can't yet determine if this is a natural rare event or one triggered by man-made global warming. But they do know that the edges of Greenland's ice sheets have already been thinning because of climate change.
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and the GOP would like to announce once again that global warming does not exist... please get along with your normal lives and ignore this news please.
What are you talking about? Can you not be such a liberal democrat? Don't you know having a 2 party system is purposely done (pits PEOPLE against each other). They are all the same, yet you can't see that? Amazing.
:-)
And the sea levels still have not risen? Plus, this states in the past 30 years. Does that mean it did the same in 1982?
Time to sell that beach front house and move to a mountain retreat !!!
ok when you read Baba Vangas Predictions she was tell that allready long time ago thats will happend!!
2010 - The start of WWIII. The war will begin in November of 2010 and will end in October of 2014. Will start as a normal war, then will include usage of nuclear and chemical weapons.
2011 - Due to the radioactive showers in Northern Hemisphere - no animals or plants will be left. Muslims will begin chemical war against Europeans who are still alive.
2014 - Most of the people in this world will have skin cancer and skin related diseases. (as a result of chemical wars).
2016 - Europe is almost empty
2018 - China becomes the new world power.
2023 - Earth’s orbit will change slightly
2025 - Europe is still barely populated
2028 - Development of a new energy source. (Probably controller thermonuclear reaction) Hunger slowly stops being a problem. Piloted spaceship to Venus deploys.
2033 - Polar ice caps melt. World ocean levels rise.
2043 - World economy is prosperous. Muslims are running Europe.
2046 - Any organs can be mass produced. Exchange of body organs becomes the favorite method of treatment.
2066 - During it’s attack on Rome (which is under control of the Muslims) U.S.A. uses a new method of weapons - has to do with climate change. Sharp freezing.
2076 - No class society (communism)
2084 - The rebirth of the nature.
2088 - New disease. - People are getting old in few seconds.
2097 - This disease is cured.
Baba Vanga's predictions for years 22nd century
2100 - Man made Sun is lighting up the dark side of the planet Earth.
2111 - People become robots.
2123 - Wars between small countries. Big countries don’t get evolved.
2125 - In Hungary the signals from Space are received. (People will be reminded of Vanga again)
2130 - Colonies under water (advices from aliens)
2154 - Animals become half-humans.
2167 - New religion
2170 - Big drought.
2183 - Collony on Mars becomes nuclear nation and is asking for independence from the Earth. (same way as U.S. did from England)
2187 - Successfully two volcano eruptions are stopped.
2195 - Sea colonies are fully supplied with energy and food.
2196 - Full mixture between Asians and Europeans.
2201 - Thermonuclear reactions on the Sun slow down. Temperatures Drop.
2221 - In the search of Alien life, human beings engage with something very freighting.
2256 - Spaceship brings a freighting new disease into Earth.
2262 - Orbits of planets start to change progressively. Mars is under a threat of being hit by a comet.
2271 - Physic properties are calculated over, since they changed.
2273 - Mix of yellow, white, and black race. New race.
2279 - Energy out of nothing (probably from vacuum or black holes)
2288 - Travel through time. New contacts with the aliens.
2291 - Sun cools. Attempts to fire it up again are taken.
2296 - Bright flashes on the Sun. Force of gravity changes. Old space stations and satellites begin to fall
2299 - In France, there is a partisan uprising against Islam.
2302 - New important new laws and mysteries about the universe are uncovered.
2304 - The mystery of the Moon is uncovered.
2341 - Something frightening is closing in with Earth from the space.
2354 - Accident on one of the man made suns, will result in drought.
2371 - Mighty hunger.
2378 - New and fast growing race.
2480 - Two man made suns will collide. Earth is in the dark.
3005 - War on Mars. Trajectory of planets changes.
3010 - Comet will ram into the Moon. Around Earth there is a belt of rocks and dust.
Ultimate end of the world in 3797?
3797 - By this time, everything living on Earth dies. But Baba Vanga predicts, humans are able to put in the essentials for the beginning of a new life in a new star system.
The last time I checked WWIII hasn't begun and we still have plants and animals....Please try to be a little less insane.
Dude, you really shouldn't mix LSD with methamphetamine...
My prior comment deleted for pointing out at this also happened in 1889 and is expected and right on time per the original article.
If you believe this story your uninformed, or brainwashed. The Ice sheet melts in the summer, and freezes in winter. My 9 year old daughter pointed this out after she read the article. That is what conservative parents do they encourage their small children to learn, examine, and think for themselves. So they don't end up drooling left wing lie gulping ignorant followers. Dont believe me? Read the article the photos arent of the ice melting, stooges, it illistrates how many of the pile on chicken little satalites have taken a reading. So what and it says nothing to the cause. Wake up!
It does say that it naturally melts. But usually HALF of it melts, not 97%. Obviously you didn't read the whole thing.
Read the original article....they state in it this happens every 150 years and is to be expected right now per the ice cores. Crazy how badly the press spins these articles and drops paragraphs they don't like.
This is propaganda. Left wing propaganda.
I spent 1 year in Greenland It is very dangerous to visit the glaciers during the summer months when the ice is melting we lost 10 men when a chunk of ice broke off and exploded and ice flying like bullets I believe in global warming