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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Bummer: Greenland ice sheet now only 3,000 meters thick; if some ridiculous model is correct, Greenland ice melt may cause 23 feet of sea level rise spread over the next 50,000 years

Greenland Ice Sheet More Sensitive to Global Warming Than Previously Known - Bloomberg

The United Nations estimates the Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise global sea levels by about seven meters (23 feet), threatening coastal cities from New York to London and Bangkok. Even so, the researchers said it could take thousands of years for the entire sheet to melt.

...With 2 degrees of warming, it would take 50,000 years to melt the ice sheet, the scientists said. At 4 degrees, the time frame decreases to 8,000 years, and at 8 degrees, it’s 2,000 years....

They factored in the effects of melting of the 3,000-meter thick ice sheet below certain altitude thresholds, which makes refreezing less likely, even with a return to previous
temperatures.

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