These floating tongues of ice extend from the main ice sheet into the ocean, and play a key role in holding back the glaciers behind. But as ice shelves melt, it can mean that the ice behind speeds up, releasing more into the oceans. The study's findings suggest that future sea-level rise may be greater than previously assumed.
The last remaining Northern Greenland ice shelves bracing the region's vast ice sheet have lost a third of their volume in the last four decades, researchers said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of "dramatic" sea level rise.
over 1000 gigatons (1 gigaton is equivalent to 1 billion tons), or 20 percent, of ice around the edges of Greenland had been lost over the past four decades and not been accounted for.
