New Research Reveals Zombie Ice Is Flooding Greenland
According to AP, “zombie ice” refers to ice that has been “committed” to the ocean, a type of ice that is effectively dead, rendering any climate change mitigation efforts futile against it. If all the zombie ice were to “misbehave,” global sea levels could rise an additional 27-87 cm.
Even a few centimeters of sea level rise can cause disasters in many areas, while several dozen centimeters mean that numerous low-lying regions today, including many major cities worldwide, would submerge beneath sea level faster than previously alarming forecasts predicted.
A broken iceberg in Greenland – (Photo: AP)
Glaciologist William Colgan from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, a co-author of the study, noted that this zombie ice, while still attached to thicker ice regions, has long ceased to be replenished by its parent glaciers. Therefore, it clings on but is no longer truly “alive.”
In the most optimistic scenario outlined in the article published in the journal Nature Climate Change, these zombie ice blocks will contribute at least an additional 27 cm to sea level rise, which is 2-3 times higher than previous estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regarding the potential sea level rise from Greenland ice by 2100 being 6-13 cm.
When considering data from the worst years over the past two decades from 2000 to 2019, the amount of melting ice could lead to a rise of 78.2 cm, posing a real disaster for continents, according to Science Alert.
In this new study, scientists examined ice blocks in a state of equilibrium.
In a perfect state of equilibrium, snow falling on the mountains of the Arctic would flow down and replenish the material thickening the glacier’s surfaces, balancing out what is melting at the edges.
However, over the past few decades, the amount of replenishment has been far less than the amount melting, creating an imbalance that has caused the proportion of zombie ice to gradually spread, now accounting for 3.3% of Greenland’s total ice, equivalent to 120 trillion tons. If this water were to fill the entire United States, sea levels would rise by up to 11 meters.
Dr. Colgan metaphorically described zombie ice as the type of ice that is “starving to death.”
