Extensive melting of ice releases deluge of water

Greenland’s vast ice sheet is seeing a surge in melting, with the amount of ice vanishing in a single day this week enough to cover the whole of Florida in 5cm of water, researchers have found.

The deluge of melting has reached deep into Greenland’s enormous icy interior, with data from the Danish government showing that the ice sheet lost 8.5bn tonnes of surface mass last Tuesday alone, which equates to 5cm of water across Florida. A further 8.4bn tonnes was lost last Thursday, the Polar Portal monitoring website reported.

Ice that melts in Greenland flows as water into the ocean, where it adds to the ongoing increase in global sea levels caused by human-induced climate change.