What’s happening in Greenland

Rocks rising from the water are slowly carving out new lands in the Greenland Sea, including small islands and cliffs like Uunartak Kekertak. Translated as “Warming Island”, this new 13-kilometer island off the east coast of Greenland was officially recognized and added to the maps of Greenland in 2005.

The land increase that we have observed in Greenland in recent years cannot be explained only by natural development after the ice age. Greenland is rising much higher,
– says Shfaqat Abbas Khan, researcher at the Technical University of Denmark.

The huge island has been rising steadily since the last ice age 12,000 years ago as its frozen waters slowly flowed into the sea. But data from 58 GPS stations across the country show that this melting is accelerating significantly, and the ascent process is accelerating with it.

Researcher Danjal Longfors Berg and colleagues found that rocks in Greenland have risen 20 centimeters in the last decade, an increase of about 2 meters per century.

With this data, we can accurately isolate some of the land uplift caused by current global climate change.
– says Han.

Although Greenland’s surrounding glaciers make up only 4 percent of the island’s ice cover, they account for almost 15 percent of its ice loss. It turns out that this large-scale reduction also makes a significant contribution to land development.

Greenland’s ice loss is shown here. Most of these losses between 2003 and 2019 occurred along the coast / Photo: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

This process is called elastic rebound. It occurs where previously ice-covered terrain is released from the weight of its surroundings and “relaxes” into its more natural, expanded form, much like a compressed pillow is released to take on more volume.

The Kangerlussuaq Glacier in southeast Greenland, which has retreated 10 kilometers since 1900, contributed to the largest uplift measured by the team.