Iceland loses 750 sqkm of glaciers to global warming in 20 years: Study Agence France-Presse Iceland
Iceland s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometres (290 square miles), or seven per cent of their surface, since the turn of the millennium due to global warming, a study showed.
The glaciers, which cover more than 10 per cent of the country s landmass, shrank in 2019 to 10,400 square kilometres, the study in the Icelandic scientific journal Jokull said.
Since 1890, the land covered by glaciers has decreased by almost 2,200 square kilometres or 18 per cent. But almost a third of this decline has occurred since 2000, according to recent calculations by glaciologists, geologists and geophysicists. Experts have previously warned that Iceland s glaciers are at risk of disappearing entirely by 2200.
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Iceland s Glaciers Lost 750 Square Kilometres In 20 Years: Study
Iceland s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometres due to global warming. The land covered by glaciers has decreased by almost 2,200 square kilometers.
IMAGE: Pixabay
Iceland s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometres or 7 per cent of their surface due to global warming. According to the new study, glaciers that cover more than 10 per cent of the country s landmass have been reduced to 10,400 square kilometres in 2019. The new study has been published in the Icelandic scientific journal Jokull. The ice s withdrawal over the past twenty years is almost equivalent to the total surface area of Hofsjokull.
Iceland’s glaciers have lost around 750 square kilometers, or 7 percent of their surface, since the turn of the millennium due to global warming, a study published on Monday showed.
The Arctic has also been losing its critically needed ice as local habitat gets disturbed. (Photo: Getty) Glacier-area variations in Iceland since around 1890 show a clear response to variations in climate, the authors of the study wrote. They have been rather synchronous over the country, although surges and subglacial volcanic activity influence the position of some glacier margins, they added.
In 2014, glaciologists stripped the Okjokull glacier of its status as a glacier, a first for Iceland, after determining that it was made up of dead ice and was no longer moving as glaciers do.
Nearly all of the world s 220,000 glaciers are losing mass at an ever-increasing pace, contributing to more than a fifth of global sea-level rise this century, according to a study published in Nature in April.