A recent study suggests that Canada’s glaciers are not just melting in response to a warming Arctic, but are also major contributors to the rise in sea levels.
University of California Irvine researchers studied data collected from 1991 to 2015 on glaciers found in the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Arctic and published their findings in a study. The researchers discovered that from 2005-2015, surface melt off of these glaciers surged by 900% – a phenomenon the experts attributed to warming air temperatures in the area.
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Glaciers lose ice in one of two ways: either surface melt or through the discharge of icebergs, referred to as calving.
Prior to 2005, the mass lost from glaciers in the Queen Elizabeth Islands was split between 48% lost through surface melt, and 52% through calving. After 2005, however, surface melt now accounts for 90% of total losses in the region.
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The report warns that the glaciers have gone from shedding three gigatons of water annually to 30 gigatons.
Canada is home to roughly 20% of the world’s glaciers and is the third-largest contributor to sea level change.
The study forwards that should the planet continue to warm as a result of even more carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, glacial surface melt could get worse.
“In the 20-plus years or so that I’ve been working up there, we’ve had radical change in the climate regime and very dramatic changes in what the glaciers look like in terms of how they behave and the extent to how they’re delivering water into the ocean,” University of Alberta glaciologist Martin Sharp told CBC News.
Sharp said that the sea level is expected to rise by as much as half a meter within the next 50 years, which could possibly displace populations along coasts due to the increased threat of storm surges and hurricanes.
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