Related topics: climate change · glaciers · sea level · ice · ice sheet

Researchers discover a cause of rapid ice melting in Greenland

While conducting a study of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory uncovered a previously unseen way in which the ice and ocean interact. ...

Atmospheric rivers linked to melting Greenland ice sheet

Atmospheric rivers—long, concentrated flows of moisture in the sky—are a key factor in the complex conditions accelerating glacial melting over northern Greenland, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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Greenland

Greenland (Danish: Grønland; Kalaallisut: Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning "Land of the people" ) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically associated with Europe (specifically Denmark) since the 18th century.

In 1979, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland, with a relationship known in Danish as Rigsfællesskabet, and in 2008 Greenland voted to transfer more competencies to the local government. This became effective the following year, with the Danish royal government remaining in charge only of foreign affairs, security and financial policy, and providing a subsidy of Dkr3.4 billion ($633m), or approximately US$11,300 per Greenlander, annually.

Greenland is, by area, the world's largest island that is not a continent in its own right, as well as the least densely populated country in the world. However, since the 1950s, scientists have hypothesized that the ice cap covering the country may actually conceal three separate island land masses that have been bridged by glacier.

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