Cool Down: Scientist Says ‘Unprecedented’ Greenland Ice Melt Actually Follows Expected Pattern
- Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:09am by
Liz Klimas
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Satellite imagery shows ice melt in July of Greenland. (Image: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth)
NASA satellite images reveal a phenomenon has occurred in Greenland this month, showing melting activity on nearly all parts of the island’s massive ice sheet.
The Associated Press called this a “freak” event. NASA calls it “unprecedented.“ Others have used words like ”alarming pace,“ ”extreme rate,“ and ”massive” to describe the melt.
Although some of these descriptions aren’t entirely untrue, even within NASA’s own announcement of this observation, a Goddard Space Flight Center scientist said these types of melting events occur every 150 years, on average.
With the last event happening in 1889, Lora Koening said “this event is right on time.”
She does note that if strong melting events like this continue in future years, “it will be worrisome.”
NASA says three satellites saw the melting over four days beginning July 8. Most of the thick ice remains. But what is technically unusual about this event is that the melting occurred over a widespread area.
NASA says the melting area went from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent. Until now, the most extensive melt seen by satellites in the past 30 years was about 55 percent over the summer months.
As AP puts it, scientists can’t say yet if the melting is from global warming or natural.
“The Greenland ice sheet is a vast area with a varied history of change. This event, combined with other natural but uncommon phenomena, such as the large calving event last week on Petermann Glacier, are part of a complex story,” said Tom Wagner, NASA’s cryosphere program manager, in a statement. “Satellite observations are helping us understand how events like these may relate to one another as well as to the broader climate system.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments (81)
TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:47amThat which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclessiastes 1:9
Report Post »Matt
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:25pmThat scripture applies specifically to the actions of human beings…but yeah, you’re basically correct.
Report Post »Chrono_Sleuth
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:00pmYep…what’s sad is the idea that scientists are worried a known and natural occurrence which they expect to happen anyway will somehow miraculously repeat. Oh no. So that means that we should freak out if a wheel turns in water, because it’s…you know, expected to happen, and known it will happen?
Wow, and they call themselves “scientists.”
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:06amGlobal Warming + algore = FRAUD
Report Post »Josh2007
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 3:22am“As AP puts it, scientists can’t say yet if the melting is from global warming or natural.”
Well there is no such thing as global warming, so…..
Report Post »GrayPanther
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:39amThere was a time 1,000 years ago when the Vikings farmed Greenland and there was no Western industrial revolution going on. Then again, there were no communists at that time to cause trouble. Nature is still in charge! CO2 is less than 4/10 of ONE percent of our atmosphere! So we should stop using coal? Get out of here!
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 1:54amNO … We should stop using water, since that is the primary greenhouse gas.
Report Post »pap pap
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:24amI don’t see any Green.
Report Post »nueces
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:04amOMG OMG OMG !!!! LOOK! All the white went away on the map! The snow all melted! OMG we are doomed! We must vote for democrats and empower the UN to save us all! It’s our only chance!
Report Post »BIGWUN
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 7:41pmMaybe there is an even bigger opportunity here such as having the UN relocated to Greenland.
Report Post »xkfxy7j
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:41pmYes, and then it will all freeze over again and we will be rid of them
Report Post »Recceman90
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 8:06amBrilliant ideas….I like it!
Report Post »Listen_then_think
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:49amYes if all of that is due to the freaks/profiteers “global change ” crap, why aren’t the Maldives under water now? Where is all the beach rising and flooding?
Report Post »Morris21654
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 4:15pmActually, there are some South Pacific islands that are sinking below the sea — not exactly accurate, because the sea is rising over them. Island nation of Kiribati is a good example. It is buying land from Fiji to which it plans to move its small population. See http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/03/16/that-sinking-feeling/
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 1:57am21654
Report Post »The initial portion of your statement is in fact correct… the islands are sinking.
Gonzo
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:31amThe last time it melted was1889? Must have been driving a lot of big SUVs back then!
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:05amIt was a truly massive armada of Nissan Armadas.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:26amThey should have gone with elecetric horses and the whole thing could have been avoided.
Report Post »maumau
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:20amyea they gathered the data from the satellites that were orbiting at 1889, right…..
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:39pm“Although some of these descriptions aren’t entirely untrue, even within NASA’s own announcement of this observation, a Goddard Space Flight Center scientist said these types of melting events occur every 150 years, on average.
With the last event happening in 1889, Lora Koening said “this event is right on time.”
My, oh my…. what will JZS have to say about this? I’ll have to hold my opinion until the “magnificent one” shares his intellectual views.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:50pm@maumau
“yea they gathered the data from the satellites that were orbiting at 1889, right…..”
No, people have been inhabiting Greenland since “about” 2500 BC and they can tell fairly easily when the ice melts and record it in literature. You see, people can “see” ice melting; especially nomadic people that tend to roam around to find food.
Today we use the “newer” technologies to measure and compare the historical facts of Nature.
What you progressive misfits ALWAYS fail to realize is this;
“We live on a Living and Breathing Planet and do not have a Living and Breathing Constitution.”
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:57pm@Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Armada squared?
You and Gonzo made my night ! LOL
Report Post »MikeNelson
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:30amWith all this Greenland ice melt, where is the projected flooding of beach front property? I left Cape Hatteras last week and it looked the same to me as last year.
Report Post »Morris21654
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 4:16pmDid you check your tide tables?
Report Post »katenga
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:28amOh good.. there‘s one scientist saying it’s all fine. No need to worry, then! Stupid main stream science people…. freakin’ elitists. They think they’re better than us!
Report Post »zipzap
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:33amOh, no, not this argument again. I get it. You ignore the dissenting scientists and label “your guys” as the mainstreamers. Umm hmm.
Report Post »John 3:16
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:24amOH MY MY MY !! Henny Penny the sky is falling !!! the sky is falling !!!.” Please send us Atlas Gore our new green supper Hero and uh!!! super swift boat Captain.He can surely save the world and enslave the sheeple.
Report Post »texasfarmer
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:24amMaybe the island will start to tilt just like Guam.
Report Post »THX-1138
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:22amAfter returning to England from a tour a reporter asked John Lennon, “How did you find America?”.
He replied, “We turned left at Greenland.”
Report Post »leftcoastslut
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:16amgood, with all that excess water cooling the atlantic ocean, i think that means that this winter year should have lots of rain…. aren’t most of you in a drought? this is good.
Report Post »cloudsofwar
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:11ambe afraid be very afraid. send Obama all your money to stop global warming, stop the seas from rising, and what the he!! was that other one? vote all republican this november and stop Obama.
Report Post »Ghengas
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:52amAdd your comments
Report Post »ZBP
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 2:00pmOk.
Report Post »title_of_liberty
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 2:48pmYou got it Ghengas.
Report Post »TimO_Florida
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:50amThe problem is that everyone wants to base their idea of ‘normal weather’ on what they’ve seen in their lifetime (i.e. the last 40-50 years). Anything else MUST be an ‘apocalypse’, when in reality things have been much worse before and they’ll be much worse again….
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:33amAgree!
Report Post »Copo
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:49amIt’s called summer
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:28amEvery year it starts to heat up in April! Something must be done!
Report Post »term limits for congress
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:43amLarge calving event? There’s the answer – methane gas from the cows.
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:08amI thought it was dinosaur farts.
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:42amThe Earth tilts. The northern hemisphere is closer to the sun. Uhhh, its called summer. Hmmm, I did retain something from 3rd grade science class.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 2:05amActually during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, the Earth is at it’s farthest point from the Sun. The Sun‘s rays are ’concentrated’ because of axial tilt so the the northern part of the globe is warmer
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 8:38amGeesh, now I feel like an idiot! I knew that and remembered just as I hit post. Thanks for the fact check, STOIC. :0)
Report Post »isranner
Posted on July 31, 2012 at 10:20amJust wait 13,000 years and you’ll be right.
Report Post »Obamujahadeen
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:33amGREEN land becomes green again.. News at 10… ;)
Report Post »BobtheMoron
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:23amWhen it freezes over thicker than normal will it be global cooling?
Report Post »cloudsofwar
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 9:06amYes.
Report Post »VaSouthron
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 1:19pmNo, more evidence of global warming!
Report Post »Krutch
Posted on July 26, 2012 at 2:30pm@bobthemoron
The ice age will be coming, just like in the 1970′s!
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:23amFreak event – Pelosi got lost on the icepack and her gaze w/o makeup set the ice on fire.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:20amto hear the loons at the huff in puff, you would think that all the ice melted away
this is just the top LAYER of ice melting , and as reported here, not a new phenomenon, just a rare one
seems to me, the worlds weather pattern is pretty much on schedule as the last time this happened was approx 150 yrs ago
by the way, why is it called GREENLAND ???? perhaps because at one point it was ALL green???
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:46amI can’t believe you would use logic to come to a logical conclusion. Psshh!
Report Post »Puddle Duck
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:40pmIn places that ice sheet is over a mile thick, even if we had year round unusual warming in that area it would decades before the entire sheet melted…not that is going to happen as the trend is toward cooling rather than warming. During the 40′s (and at the height of WWII) the winters of 41-44 were some of the coldest most miserable winters the world had seen for centuries and yet without a doubt massive amounts of fossil fiel were being burned, coal,timber, cities & people entire regions razed to the ground and yet….the 50‘s through to the end of the 70’s were somewhat warmer but not decidedly so. In any event the weather extremes would not be viewed as extremes if data were collected going back say over 1000 years. The level of stupidity the enviro whackos expect of thier supporters should give anyone pause when one considers all of the factors that actually do influence the weather to a great degree…man is not among those factors.
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:16amComrades Greenland was properly named Green Land when the Vikings colonized it during one of its warm spells.While that ultimately didn’t work out to well for them, since the vikings that didn’t leave starved to death, when the ice returned.
Report Post »There is really very little that is new in history.
Cataclysm
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 10:50amHistorical evidence shows that Greenland was Green once, it was much like the mid-west of the ASA. Viking remains shows when they first settled Greenland, it was warm and Vikings ate mostly sheep and goat, which feed of the fields. As generations past scientist noticed that the Vikings started eating more and more fish, the scientists noticed that the climate at that time was getting colder and the glaciers were growing larger. At some point even that water got too cold for the fish and the fish left, so the Vikings with no food source left with the weather too cold for the sheep and the goats the Vikings left Greenland. More evidence that the Earth goes through hot and cold cycles all the time and Man-Made Global Warming is a FRAUD.
Report Post »woodyee
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:14amIt could be that shifting winds carried heat from one of Algores speeches over Greenland…
Report Post »woodyee
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:21amOn a serious note, it could be our planet is drawing closer to the Sun, at it has done thousands of times before. GREENland used to be…
…just like Montana was once lush with tropical plants and warm sea water…
Report Post »Puddle Duck
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:47pmOur orbit is not a perfect circle around the sun, it is elipside in nature and you sir are exactly right…we are in the phase of the orbit where the planet is closest to the sun. That being said what makes the year to changes seem uneven has to do with the SUN‘s activities as it also has phases where it’s output os greater than other times ( solar storms, mass ejections, gamma bursts ) …today’s AGW believer should be laughed at and shown contempt for THIER ignorance, if nothing else.
Report Post »