NASA has released some unbelievable epitome of Greenland ’s glaciers taken by Landsat satellites almost 50 days apart . The first image was exact in 1972 and has been released alongside a picture of the same domain involve this class . The difference in ice coverage leave a sobering reminder of the shock the climate crisis is having on our major planet .
The icon focalise on Greenland ’s Sermilik Fjord located near the southerly tip of the Arctic island . The one-time image was accept by Landsat 1 in September 1972 and shows white - blue ice cover stretching deep into the fjord . The most recent picture was taken by Landsat 8 on August 12 , 2019 . The extent of the glacier is significantly boil down , but a dramatic feature article is the change in color .
In the most recent picture , the glaciers have more brownish - gray tones . Researchers indicate that this is due to surface melting . This process concentrates dust and John Rock particles , leading to a darker spectre on the frozen surface of these glaciers .
“ There ’s a lot more bare rock seeable now , which used to be covered with shabu , ” glaciologist Christopher Shuman , from the University of Maryland , said in astatement . “ And all these little glacier are all getting slam , as well as the bigger one like Helheim , Fenris and Midgard . There are score of good example of variety just in this one area . ”
Helheim Glacier ( pictured below ) has retreated by 7.5 kilometers ( 4.7 miles ) between the two delineation . The ice loss over the last 47 year is not just about duration and colors . It ’s also about the depth . In the stuffy - up characterisation of Helheim , the cliff paries and stony outcropping completely continue in 1972 are now starkly seeable .
During the July heatwave , Greenland lost217 billion tonsof methamphetamine hydrochloride through melting , and about 90 percentage of the aerofoil of the Arctic island ’s deoxyephedrine sheet melted between July 30 and August 2 , 2019 . In June , a striking pictureshared by researchers present just how serious the melting trouble was .
And the future of Greenland ’s glaciers looks quite bleak . Even in a scenario where we dramatically ignore the level of greenhouse emissions we produce , the island will still lose up to a quarter of its methamphetamine hydrochloride by the end of the millennium , contributing to a unmediated growth in ocean floor procession of about 1.8 metre ( 6 foundation ) . Inmore pessimistic scenario , thing are much , much unsound .
