‘Zombie ice’ from Greenland will raise global sea level almost 30cm, study says
- Even without any future global warming, Greenland’s melting ice sheet will cause major sea level rise, new study says
- ‘We’re talking about large portions of places like New York, Miami and Bangladesh disappearing’: study co-author
Zombie ice from the massive Greenland ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 27cm (10 inches) on its own, according to a new study.
Zombie or doomed ice is ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice, but is no longer getting fed by those larger glaciers. That is because the parent glaciers are getting less replenishing snow.
Meanwhile the doomed ice is melting from climate change, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
“It’s dead ice. It’s just going to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Colgan said in an interview. “This ice has been consigned to the ocean, regardless of what climate [emissions] scenario we take now.”
Study lead author Jason Box, a glaciologist at the Greenland survey, said it is “more like one foot in the grave”.
The unavoidable 27cm in the study is more than twice as much sea level rise as scientists had previously expected from the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet.