More Frequent Glacial Quakes on Greenland Signal Ice Retreat – Eos
Article Synopsis – Between 1993 and 2011, the annual number of earthquakes caused by gigantic blocks of ice breaking away from Greenland’s glaciers has increased, further evidence of accelerating ice loss. A team of researchers has been studying calving from glaciers that end where the land and ocean meet. In those events, gigantic blocks of ice, typically with a mass of about a gigaton break free and produce glacial earthquakes that generally register magnitude 5 on seismometers as far away as New York or the Midwest in the United States. A gigaton of ice would fill Central Park in New York as high as the top of the Empire State Building. the annual tally of earthquakes increased significantly between 1993 and 2011, from about 10 quakes per year initially to about 40 quakes per year most recently. Moreover, of the 305 glacial earthquakes in total that have struck the Greenland ice sheet since 1993, 145 of them, or nearly half, occurred from 2011 to 2013. if the whole Greenland ice sheet melted at once, sea level would rise 7 meters globally. Even a 2-meter rise from melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, an amount some scientists say could happen by the end of 2100, would devastate coastal cities around the world. To read the actual article click here.