Greenlands ice loss discovered by historic picture

Greenland’s Ice Loss Discovered By Historic Picture

       A Danish basement holding 80-year old photographs gives scientists clues on the glacial melt in all of Greenland’s glaciers today.

this is a picture found in the Danish basement.

another picture of greenlands icebergs

       A photograph taken by Knud Rasmussen shows how much ice has melted in Greenland since 1932. It was taken on the coast of Greenland by Rasmussen on a voyage to Greenland. Scientists are trying to learn more on how the glaciers in greenland are affected by climate change. Jason Box, a researcher at the Byrd polar researcher in ohio state, has done research and found that the glaciers have melted more in the 1930’s that in the 2000’s. He noticed in the mid-1900’s there was a brief cooling period that re-froze the ice that melted earlier in the century.

       This ice layer started to melt again in the 2000’s, but still not at the rate in which it was melting in the 1930’s. Researchers have concluded that glaciers can be a very important indicator of climate change. Photographs like the one found in the danish basement are very rare. this is because this was before satellites were launched to take photographs.

       The photographs were taken as reference for mapping intentionally, there were not meant to be a glacial reference point. There were many photographs found, like aerial shots of land, ice, the sea, and the glaciers. They were taken of the southeast border of Greenland, on a expedition with Rasmussen's team. They re-made the images on the computer, so that they could compare the images of the glaciers and coastlines from then and now.

       Two main parts of these pictures stand out to researchers, the glacial retreats between the years, 1933-1934 and 2000-2010. Fewer glaciers were melting within the 1930’s than now. Most of the glaciers that were melting were not touching the sea either, so they weren't affected by the water temperature. In the 2000’s the melting glaciers were melting at about 20 meters every year the warmest year melted at 374 meters of the glacier. Most of the glaciers that were melting in the  1930’s melted at the same or higher rates than in the 2000’s.

       The average ice loss today in greenland is about 50 meters per year. The highest recent percent was at 887 meters in one year, which was much higher than the average. Between the years that iceland stopped melting its icebergs, 1943-1972, there was a lot of sulfur pollution in the greenland area. The sulfur is a gas that reflects much of the sun’s rays, making greenland cooler than normal. Sulfur is very poisonous to humans, and is produced from volcanoes and industrial production and many other little things. It is the main ingredient is acid rain, which is also very poisonous to humans and other things. it was at a very high rate in the atmosphere in 1963, its peak. This brief period with sulfur showed lots of scientists how the country’s icebergs are affected by the earth’s climate change.

       Scientists are using this data to compare the entire world’s climate. people asked if they should be used for the entire world had varied responses about this. Josef Triman said that “ Yes so they have something to compare to now”. Many people agreed that these pictures should be used for the world, Patrick Stewart said that if it is just Greenland it should not be used for the entire world’s climate change.

Nick Wiley

Period 5

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