Climatologists are updating assessments of what would happen in the event of a total Greenland ice sheet melt. The fact that they are even contemplating this, is disturbing. Furthermore the California fire that wiped out the Paradise settlement adds to evidence what we think is impossible, could happen.
The Probable Consequences of a Total Greenland Ice Sheet Melt
Melting all the Arctic ice in Greenland would raise global sea levels by 24.34 feet. This would destroy most coastal town and cities. “[It’s] a little bit more than we thought. But not a whole lot more,” explains Dr Mathieu Morlighem from the University of California at Irvine who ran the numbers.
He increased the previous estimate by 2.75 inches after recalculating the elevation of the ice sheet surface from the bedrock. Were there to be a total Greenland ice sheet melt, then Greenland would transform into a rocky wasteland, and all life on it would vanish. A new study shows “a hidden world of mountains and canyons” beneath the ice we never imagined.
See What Scientists Just Discovered!
Scientists Discover a Huge Impact Crater Beneath Greenland Ice
We sometimes wonder what would happen if a large thermo-nuclear device exploded over Greenland. Or a large comet for that matter. How much ice could melt from thermal and kinetic energy concealed in shock waves? Now scientists have discovered a meteoric impact crater 20 miles wide in bedrock 0.6 miles below Greenland’s ice.
They estimate an iron asteroid a mile wide struck Earth with immeasurable force between 12,000 and 3 million years ago. Although they cannot be more exact unless they dig down to it, which is unlikely. They have also not found any rock or dust fragments in the vicinity, deepening the mystery.
The impact crater may relate to the Younger Dryas extreme cooling event in the midst of the last great ice age. This may have extinguished many groups of animals and precursors of human life. We are reminded once again how delicately we cling to Earth’s surface, and how foolish we are to interfere with nature’s forces.
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Preview Image: Greenland Canyon Beneath the Ice
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