In Greenland, islands are being created due to global warming

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Greenland, photographed here on October 4, 2023, is mostly covered in ice .

Agence France-Presse

Mainly caused by global warming, the melting of the ice cap in Greenland is at the origin of the rise in the ground level of the #x27;huge Arctic island and the creation of new islets, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) said on Tuesday.

Due to the loss of mass across Greenland, the earth is rising, DTU researcher Danjal Longfors Berg, lead author of a published study, told AFP (New window) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

According to Danish scientists, the source rock in Greenland rose in average of 20 cm in the last 10 years, from 2013 to 2023, an alarming phenomenon, he added.

The rise in ground level is, however, less significant if we move away from an active glacier.

Measured by 61 GPS stations located along the coasts, the uplift, which could reach two meters per century, also reveals new islets around the Danish autonomous territory, vast of 2.2 million square kilometers.

In Greenland, the mother earth is rising faster than the rise in ocean level and in some places, when the land rises, it rises above sea level, and then we have these new islands, says Mr. Longfors Berg.

Eventually, the total area of ​​Greenland will increase […], but at the beginning, it& #x27;is just maybe a few stones, he points out.

According to a study published in early 2023, half of Glaciers on Earth are doomed to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change. Their melting contributes to rising sea levels.

In Greenland, there are certain regions where all this lost mass can never be found, even if we had a small ice age, says the scientist.