Doha: An ice dome in northern Greenland fully melted in the past at temperatures that could recur this century, offering new insight into how rapidly ice-sheet loss may drive global sea-level rise.
According to Anadolu Agency - English, a study published Monday in the journal Nature revealed that Greenland's Luxembourg-sized Prudhoe Dome completely melted around 7,000 years ago. Researchers reached this conclusion after drilling a deep ice core that uncovered sun-bleached sand from a warmer post-glacial period.
Scientists noted that the region experienced summers 3-5°C warmer than today, temperatures that could return by 2100 due to human-caused climate change. The potential melting of Greenland's ice sheet could raise sea levels by several tens of centimeters to as much as 1 meter (3.2 feet) this century. This concern is prompting scientists to refine estimates by examining how quickly various regions may disappear.
The Prudhoe Dome core contributes to limited evidence from beneath Greenland's ice sheet, indicating the region was ice-free hundreds of thousands of years ago and that the entire ice sheet melted as recently as 1.1 million years ago. While researchers warned that present-day melting differs from past events driven by natural orbital shifts, they acknowledged that the findings could enhance climate models used to simulate how Greenland's ice sheet reacts to warming.