The ??? ?? ?? ???greatest masses of ice on Earth, in Antarctica and Greenland, aren't just melting — this melt is accelerating.
How much ice are these critical polar regions losing into the oceans? NASA uses satellites to diligently measure the conditions of these colossal ice sheets. Between 2002 to 2017, the GRACE satellite observed 5,641 gigatonnes of ice loss. (For reference, a single gigatonne is equivalent to 1 billionmetric tons — and there are about 2,200 pounds in a single metric ton.)
"This is enough to cover Texas in a sheet of ice 26 feet high," said NASA.
To help visualize a single gigatonne, NASA made a new video, shown below in its shorter form (via Instagram) and longer form, which is only 24 seconds and definitely worth your time. As NASA notes, a gigatonne of ice in 843-acre Central Park would reach 1,119 feet high.
That's taller than Manhattan's iconic Chrysler Building, once the tallest building in the world.
View this post on Instagram
Antarctica is losing six timesmore ice than it was in the 1980s. And Greenland's rate of melt has accelerated by seven timessince the 1990s.
Both of these historically unprecedented events are ultimately driven by a relentlessly heating planet, as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations continue to skyrocket.
In Greenland — home to an ice sheet two and a half times the size of Texas — a warming atmosphere is driving much of this melt. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, warmer ocean waters are eating away at the ends of glaciers that float over the ocean, known as ice shelves. This poses a giant problem.
The mighty Thwaites glacier, one of the largest glaciers on Earth, lies in Antarctica. Warmer ocean waters are melting away the ice shelf at a "tremendous rate," and in the coming decades the glacier may pass the point of no return — meaning unstoppable amounts of Thwaites' ice on the Antarctic continent will pour into the sea.
"Thwaites is the one spot in Antarctica that has the potential to dump an enormous amount of water into the ocean over the next decades," Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a professor of glaciology at Penn State University, told Mashable.
SEE ALSO: What, exactly, does Congress understand about the world's most threatening glacier?Thwaites alone could trigger over two feet of sea level rise this century.
Already, though, many gigatons of ice are pouring in the sea. Under extremely optimistic (if not nearly impossible) scenarios wherein global society curbs Earth's warming at an ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-Industrial Revolution temperatures, the relatively conservative UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expects around two feet of sea level rise this century.
But it could be more, much more. This depends on how much society curbs its carbon emissions in the coming decade and beyond, and potentially stabilizes the warming climate.
ATK to field CacaNito in ESL Pro League Season 17
New York's 9/11 mayor conveniently forgets about 9/11
New York's 9/11 mayor conveniently forgets about 9/11
Dads find doppelg?ngers in airport and become fast dad friends
Free Admission to Museums on Saturday
Did the Olympics' algae
Please behold Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte eating ice bath spaghetti
Simone Biles proves she's a badass once again
‘Flicker in Eternity,’ ‘Go For Broke!’ at JANM
3 claims from Trump's speech that social media fact
ABC7’s Ono Wins Three L.A. Emmy Awards
Katy Perry unleashed a feline chatbot to help fans get their paws on her new perfume
Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are now feuding on Instagram apparently
Cat gets stuck in the most awkward position ever
ATK to field CacaNito in ESL Pro League Season 17
Romania hardcore trolls journalist for allegedly faking report on arms sales
Olympic gymnast 'heartbroken' after being bullied by online trolls
More than half of women in advertising have faced sexual harassment, report says
Get Down in J
Behold the winner of cheekiest display of condoms in Rio Olympics
The 14 worst White House moments of 2018Watch The Rock's mom learn he bought her a house for ChristmasI went on a date with a CES robot. He was nice.McDonald's and Greggs clap back at Piers Morgan's vegan tweetsJ.K. Rowling's first tweet of 2019 contains an optical illusion and a very good dogHow the snooze button got set to 9 minutes, and why it hasn't changedBusted: Looks like Alexandria OcasioWatch The Rock's mom learn he bought her a house for ChristmasAlexandria OcasioTrump to kid about believing in Santa: 'At 7 it's marginal, right?' Spotify takes down thousands of songs generated by AI startup Boomy Cleavage sex: what is it and how do you do it? 'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for May 6 Social media guidelines for teens: What experts say in new report Google Pixel 7a announced: Specs, price, release date Tesla's fastest 'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for May 8 Google Pixel phones might get an exclusive Bard widget 'Yellowjackets' Season 2 made me a Callie fan. Here's why. Scammers hack verified Facebook pages to impersonate Meta
0.1405s , 9846.6875 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【??? ?? ?? ???】NASA stuck a colossal ice block in New York City in new climate video,Global Hot Topic Analysis
