greenland

Fears that the rapid draining of water from the top of Greenland's ice sheet may be accelerating the movement of the ice sheet into the ocean and therefore contributing to the rise of global sea levels have been allayed by new research that has cast doubt on the ‘lubrication’ theory.

 Greenland’s ice sheet shrank more rapidly last summer than at any other time in the past 50 years, measurements have shown.

It is hard to shock journalists and at the same time leave them in awe of the power of nature. A group returning from a helicopter trip flying over, then landing on, the Greenland ice cap at the time of maximum ice melt last month were shaken. One shrugged and said: "It is too late already." Scary first-hand report from the glaciers in Greenland.

“The Earth is elastic and if you put a load on top of it, then the surface will move down; if you remove the load, then the surface will start rising again,” explains Shfaqat Khan of the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen.