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The team used a type of radar to measure the amount of melting and discovered rates typically simply as high on the bottom of the ice sheet as on the sun-splashed surface. ” The heat created by the falling water is melting the ice from the bottom up, and the melt rate we are reporting is entirely extraordinary,” Christoffersen stated. The research study is released in the newest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The scientists compute as much as 82 million cubic meters of water fell from the surface area to the base of Store Glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet every day throughout the summer season of 2014. They approximate that water falling to the bottom of the sheet produces more hydropower during summertime than the worlds top 10 hydroelectric producing stations integrated. ” Given what we are experiencing at the high latitudes in regards to environment modification, this form of hydropower could easily double or triple, and were still not even including these numbers when we approximate the ice sheets contribution to water level rise,” Christoffersen said.The Greenland Ice Sheet is currently the largest single contributor to global sea level rise.Its too bad theres no practical method to capture this concealed hydropower, as all that clean energy could help decrease the emissions that are in fact accelerating its creation..
In summertime, an increasing quantity of the frozen surface melts, forming lakes and streams that rapidly make their way to the bottom of the ice sheet– traveling downward as much as a full kilometer– by rushing through fractures and large fractures. A worldwide group of researchers set out to determine how much energy was produced by this process. ” Theres a lot of gravitational energy kept in the water that forms on the surface area, and when it falls, the energy needs to go someplace,” Cambridge University professor Poul Christoffersen explained in a declaration. That energy is being converted to heat at the base of the ice sheet, leading to high rates of melting both on the top and bottom of the sheet..
In summer, an increasing amount of the frozen surface area melts, forming lakes and streams that rapidly make their way to the bottom of the ice sheet– traveling downward as much as a complete kilometer– by hurrying through cracks and big fractures.” The heat created by the falling water is melting the ice from the bottom up, and the melt rate we are reporting is totally unmatched,” Christoffersen stated. The scientists calculate up to 82 million cubic meters of water fell from the surface to the base of Store Glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet each day during the summertime of 2014.
Water streaming into a moulin and down to the bed of Store Glacier, Greenland.
Poul Christoffersen
The surface of the Greenland ice sheet is melting, developing a network of ephemeral rivers and waterfalls that researchers say produces more hydropower than the cumulative output of the 10 biggest hydroelectric stations on the world. Its part of a brutal feedback loop brought on by climate modification that could hasten the increase in water level worldwide..