Illulisat Glacier (Greenland) Ice Loss Fastest On Record - 30 km3/Yr Now, 5 km3/Yr Back In 1992

[hatrack]

One of the world's largest glaciers, on the west coast of Greenland, is shrinking at an alarming rate as a result of global warming -- with potentially dire consequences. Ilulissat, a UNESCO-listed glacier, is shedding ice into the sea faster than ever before, according to one of Denmark's top experts on glaciology.

Andreas Peter Ahlstroem, a researcher with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland institute, told AFP that the glacier has receded by more than 15 kilometres (10 miles) since 2001. "Its calving rate (breaking off of ice) has never been so rapid," he said.

The Ilulissat glacier and icefjord have been on UNESCO's world heritage list since 2004 and is the most visited site in Greenland, its ice and pools of emerald-blue water admired by tourists and studied by scientists and politicians around the world. The Danish government chose Ilulissat as the venue for recent talks with some 30 countries to discuss ways to slow global warming -- a place that Shfaqat Abbas Khan, a glacier expert from the Danish Space Centre, describes as the "most visible and striking example of climate change." The glacier is the most active in the northern hemisphere, producing 85 million tonnes of icebergs per day, according to Khan.

EDIT

Khan explained that Ilulissat is losing more than 30 cubic kilometres (seven cubic miles) of ice a year, compared to 10 cubic kilometres in 2000 and just five in 1992.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Greenlands_glaciers_under_threat_from_climate_change_999.html

[pscot]

1. At that rate

by 2050, ilulisat will have dumped almost 300 cubic miles of ice into the sea. We're gonna need a large bar rag. That's a big enough ice cube to make your drink overflow.

[The Croquist]

2. "Faster than ever before"

How far back does "ever" go?