University of Austin researchers working with NASA satellite data have determined that the Greenland ice sheet is melting three times faster than previously thought. It is currently dumping 57.3 cubic miles of water into the oceans each year. This equates to a half millimeter is ocean rise each year. While that may not seem like much, its important to remember that as melt increases, it accelerates due to the fact that pooling water on its surface is warmer and almost 100% less reflective. It absorbs the sun’s heat instead of reflecting it.

Update: this is adding .6 millimeter of ocean level rise annually. We have been tracking a 1.8 mm annual rise over the last 100 years so this represents a 30% increase from this source alone. over ten years this represents nearly an inch of rise.

This surface water seeps to the base of the ice sheet and creates a lubrication layer between the ice pack and the bedrock, which can cause the entire sheet to slide towards the sea. If this occurs we could see a major rise in ocean levels.

57.3 cubic miles- that’s a truly awesome quantity.