Greenland is the great ice sheet of the Earth. Melting greenland ice

Small groups of researchers from around the world are looking for evidence of the impact of global warming on the ice of Greenland (an island washed by the Atlantic and North Arctic oceans). They measure the movement of glaciers, the density of snow cover, and the thickness of the ice. The Eskimos living in Greenland have witnessed a rapidly changing landscape. Below are photographs of Brennan Linsley, who spent extended periods of time on an arctic island.

Drifting icebergs near the city of Ilulissat.

blue pools melting ice on the largest glacier in Greenland, Jakobshavn, which is located on the west coast of the island. From the middle of the XIX to the middle of the XX century. the tip of the glacier has retreated 23 km and is now about 50 km from the mouth of the fjord. Almost the entire fjord (narrow, winding and deeply cut into the land sea ​​bay with rocky shores) is filled with icebergs.

Iceberg among drifting ice at sunset. A picture of the Jakobshavn glacier was taken on July 19 in Ilulissat (city and administrative center municipality of the same name located in West Greenland). Greenland is the focus of many researchers who are trying to understand how much the melting ice will raise sea levels.
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Drifting ice near the city of Ilulissat (translated from the Greenlandic language, the word "Ilulissat" means "icebergs").

Pressurized ridges that form the surface of the world's largest fast-moving glacier in West Greenland, Jakobshavn. The speed of movement at the lower border is about 7 km per year.

Nukappi Brandt, 49, a hunter, drives a boat with his daughters Aaneerak, 9, and Luusi, 8. The photo was taken near the city of Qeqertarsuaq in Disko Bay.

Drifting ice in the bay of the city of Ilulissat.

Inuit (Eskimos, Mongoloids, Arctic race) from Qeqertarsuaq.

The daughters of Greenland hunter Nukappi Brandt return home with their father after a failed seal hunt.

A dog with his puppy in the West Greenland town of Qeqertarsuaq. According to many Greenlanders, 20 years ago the ice became too thin to support sleds with dogs, and seal hunting lost its importance. Some hunters, who fed their sled dogs from winter prey, simply could not support them, so they had to shoot them.

The tusk of a narwhal (hunting trophy) flaunts on the wall in the house of an Eskimo family. Below it hang mini-copies of traditional hunting accessories.

An ordinary Eskimo family in Qeqertarsuaq.

Hunting for prey that disappeared under water before the shot was fired.

Melting glacier in Greenland.

fishing boat surrounded by icebergs near Ilulissat.

Melting ice near the city of Nuuk, located on southwest coast Greenland Islands at the mouth of the fjord Good Hope, about 240 km south of the Arctic Circle.

Local fisherman.

Drilling rig "Leiv Eiriksson".

Blue transparent ice is observed on the surface of a melting iceberg off the coast of Qeqertarsuaq.

A Greenlandic fisherman swims past a melting iceberg along a fjord near Nuuk.

Iceberg near the city of Nuuk.

on a group of lakes in the center of the island.

Tethered to a waiting helicopter nearby, New York University polar explorer Carl Gladish installs a new GPS seismometer designed to track ice movements close to the edge. ice cap Greenland on the Jacobshavn Glacier.

Clouds over the constantly collapsing front of the Jakobshavn Glacier, 6 kilometers wide.

A man at the glaciers, near the city of Qeqertarsuaq.

C-130 aircraft on the world's longest (5120 meters) ice runway. The photo was taken at a small research center at an altitude of 3200 meters above sea level.

The main building of the research station of the American National Training Foundation. It is raised on supports to avoid snow drift.

View of the surface of the Greenland glacier.

Dartmouth Sak-Yun Lee, an engineering graduate, testing a prototype of a wheeled polar robot designed specifically for long-range exploration.

floating ice Greenland.

Liz Morris, 64, of the University of Cambridge, before a month-long 800km snowmobile research trip. The trip was sponsored by the National Conservation Research Council. environment Great Britain.

Researchers on a 3-kilometer piece of ice at their station.

A melting iceberg near the city of Nuuk.

The Greenlandic Inuit language has a large number of words to describe ice and all its types. A selection of photographs taken by Associated Press reporter Brennan Linsley of a vast Arctic island provides a visual dictionary of the forms ice can take. The Greenland ice sheet is melting under the influence of global warming, and as a result, streams of water and huge blocks of ice enter the ocean. Researchers around the world are trying to calculate how much ice will melt and how long it will last. The most beautiful icebergs break off the huge Jakobshavn glacier, near the city of Ilulissat, at west coast Greenland. First, these icebergs slide into the 40-kilometer Ilulissat Fjord, and then float away into Disko Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The ice, which is tens of thousands of years old, forms a 1,716,000 km² ice sheet covering almost 80% of Greenland.

(Total 21 photos)

1. Explorer Carl Gledish returns to after installing a GPS seismometer that will track the movement of ice on the Jakobshavn glacier, near the city of Ilulissat, Greenland. Researcher David Holland hopes to install dozens of instruments that will calculate ice loss in Greenland. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

2. A melting iceberg floats along the fjord away from the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, off the coast of the city of Nuuk, on July 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

3. Icebergs that have broken off the Greenland ice sheet run along the coast of the city of Ilulissat on July 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

4. In their free time, the researchers gathered near Summit Station, a remote research center located at an altitude of 3200 m above sea level, on top of the Greenland ice sheet. Research teams from around the world are studying and predicting the effects of global warming on Greenland's glaciers. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

5. Stripes blue ice frozen on the surface of an iceberg that broke away from the Greenland ice sheet, not far from the coast of the city of Ilulissat. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

6 Two icebergs that have broken off the Greenland ice sheet float off the coast of Ilulissat on July 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

7. A melting iceberg floats along the fjord away from the edge of the Greenland ice sheet off the coast of the city of Nuuk. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

8. Greenlandic Inuit, hunting and sailing on a boat past a melting iceberg off the coast of the city of Nuuk, Greenland. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

9. On the top of the Jakobshavn glacier, which is located on the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, a lake of melt water has formed. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

New York University researcher Carl Gledish hammers steel poles into the ice to record a newly installed GPS seismometer designed to monitor ice movement at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, on the Jakobshavn glacier, near the city of Ilulissat. Researcher David Holland hopes to install dozens of instruments that will calculate ice loss in Greenland. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

11. A fishing boat sails between icebergs that have broken off the Greenland ice sheet, off the coast of the city of Ilulissat. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

12. Researcher Brandon Strellis of the Georgia Institute of Technology comes out of a small working booth at Summit Station, a remote research center located at an altitude of 3200 m above sea level, on top of the Greenland ice sheet. Research teams from around the world are studying the effects of global warming on Greenland's glaciers. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

13. An iceberg floats near the town of Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island, Greenland. Greenland is the subject of research by many scientists who are trying to determine how much the water level in the ocean will rise after the melting of the glaciers. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

14. Melt water formed turquoise lake atop the Jakobshavn glacier, on the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, July 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Georgia Institute of Technology researcher Brandon Strellis processes ice samples at Summit Station, a small research facility located in the heart of the Greenland ice sheet, on July 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

16. A small, sensor-equipped laboratory at the Summit Station is located at an altitude of 3200 m above sea level on top of the Greenland ice sheet. Summit Station is one of the research centers of the National Science Foundation. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)19. Ice left over from icebergs that broke off the Greenland ice sheet lies on a waterfront in the city of Ilulissat on July 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

20. The ship slowly sails among the ice floes left over from icebergs that broke away from the Greenland ice sheet, off the coast of the city of Ilulissat. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

21. Water drips from a melting iceberg near Nuuk, Greenland. Greenland is the subject of research by many scientists who are trying to determine how much the water level in the ocean will rise after the melting of the glaciers. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Rice. 1. The name Arctid on the map of Mercator

However, while working on the article, I was able to get acquainted with the image of the Wikipedia article "Greenland", where this island was depicted without ice. It seemed to me that Greenland in this form has internal reservoir and very realistically consists of 4 parts. True, there are no straits between them, but they could later be brought in by various layers. In any case, it seemed to me not too significant. And then the question arose - is it possible to consider Greenland, free of ice, a real Hyperborea, that is, Arctorus, consisting of 4 Arctids? To do this, it was necessary to conduct a study consisting of reading inscriptions on Greenland without ice, and this article is just such a study.

Rice. 2 Ice Free Greenland (Wikipedia)

Map of Greenland.

There are several interesting areas to be seen here. So, in the extreme south, mountains are visible (shown in red), forming, as it were, an image of a man's face. And on the left side, on the plain, you can see the face of a man without a mustache and beard, but with a very long nose and narrow slits of the eyes. Mountains are visible on the right side. The lowest part of the plain is in the center, descending to inland sea. The northern part is the smallest, and also quite mountainous.

Rice. 3. My reading of the inscriptions

My reading of the inscriptions.

First, I read the inscription on the southern part, where you can see the full face of a man's face. The inscriptions are not clearly visible because of the ice sheet above them. Therefore, they seem to be slightly blurred. First I try to read the inscription at the level of the mouth and below. It seems to me that capital letters words are written here YARA RUSS. On the Mercator map, Fig. 1. Arctida Yar should correspond to this phrase.

If so, then the second Arctida, on the right on the map of Greenland, should be called Makosh. I select the mountain fragment where I suspect the presence of an inscription, rotate it so that it is horizontal, and read the inscription. The words are written here MAKEUP(the letter M is very blurred, the letter A is superimposed on top of the letter Z) ARCTORUS(in two lines, the first letter A is superimposed on the letter Zh of the previous word). Thus, my expectation was justified, although the specific inscription turned out to be slightly different.

The third Arctida, to the left of Yar, would then be Mara. I select the fragment corresponding to the narrow-eyed face and read the inscription on the eyes. This MARA. This assumption is also confirmed.

Then the last area should be Yar's Mask Arctida. So I'm allocating a plot northern territory and I read there an inscription on the plain in two lines. The word TEMPLE is read on the top line, and MASKS on the bottom line. On the right on the top line you can read the word YARA. So before us TEMPLE OF THE MASK YAR.

All the names of the Arctides generally agreed. Arktida Yar corresponds to the name YARA Rus', Arktida Makazh - MAKAZH ARKTORUS, Arktida Mask Yara - TEMPLE OF THE MASK YARA, Arktida Rus Mary - MARA. Such small discrepancies are quite acceptable.

The search for the city of Polo.

The city of Polo had an approximately circular structure, and Mount Meru was located in the center of its reservoir. If you look at the inland sea /, elongated vertically, then its Northern part forms not so much a ring as a very elongated oval. But his South part consists of three parts. The top is closed with small island, but forms a kind of elongated area. It can hardly be considered a ring. The middle part has, to some extent, the shape of the letter Z. It also cannot be considered a ring. But the lower part does not form an ideal circle, but looks like a kind of blot. However, what is surprising is that the bays are approximately the same distance from one center. Moreover, in this center there is a small point - a mountain. Isn't it Meru?

I tried to copy this place and see if there are any inscriptions. On fig. 3 I showed that the northern part of this third fragment seems to contain 4 letters that form a word POLO. This is the name of the capital of Arctorus, which is located in the north of the third fragment. And in the south the words are read THE WORLD OF YARA MAKEUP.

So, it seems that all four Arctides were found, and even the capital of Arctorus, the city of Polo. For now, that's enough.

Rice. 4. Correspondence of the location of Hyperborea with real Greenland

About Hyperborea on the map of Mercator.

If you compare the location of the Arctides on the Mercator map, you can see that the map is rotated a lot compared to the real Greenland. On fig. 4, I tried to rotate his map and stretch it a little in height, but I still didn’t get a complete resemblance. Nevertheless, it became clear to me that Mercator adjusted the image of the Arctides to the north pole, that is, not knowing about the displacement of the North Pole, he made a “geographical remake”, a kind of “geographical fiction”. Perhaps he himself did not assume this. But, regardless of his personal desires, he (if Hyperborea is Greenland) greatly distorted both the position and the shape of the Arctids.

Rice. 5. Identification of fragments on southern cape

The search for Cape Krumia.

On the map of Mercator, I found Cape Crumia, which was located in the direction of America. When converted to real situation Greenland, it should be in the very south. Checking this point of view is not difficult, just look at the southernmost cape of Greenland from space. I chose a picture from a height of 71 km above the ground.

Now, in the screenshot of current Greenland from Google Earth, I show the southernmost cape of Greenland, measuring 63 km in width. As can be seen from this image, it is almost completely covered with snow and ice, and only part of the coast is free of them.

It is clear that the areas where, as it seems to me, there are inscriptions, I outlined with frames. On fig. 6 I read these inscriptions.

Rice. 6. My reading of the inscriptions on the southern cape

My reading of the inscriptions on the southern cape.

The inscriptions are clearly visible. Especially on the largest fragment on the right. There is an impression that the letters are duplicated. I consider the largest ones and read: CRUMIA. This is the word I'm looking for (in one place the letters U and I are written in the top line, the letter M is in the bottom line, the letter P is written in reversed color). In addition to this word, there are three more words that I circled in smaller boxes. In sum, they give the inscription CAPE Rus' YARA. Indeed, both on the Folsom Stone and on the Mercator map, Cape Crumia is located on Arctida Yar.

So not only the name of the cape (not related to modern Eskimos and their language) was confirmed, but also its belonging to Arctida Yar.

By the way, the inscriptions on the screenshot of Greenland turned out to be a real test and the strongest proof that it was Greenland that was Arctorus (or, in the Greek sense, Hyperborea).

It was also clear to me that if Cape Krumia was so popular in ancient world, then several temples should have been located next to it. Therefore, I began to look for these temples in the screenshot. And, of course, I found it. I circled one of them with a black frame. It shows the head of a lion from the front, with a slight inclination to the right. The animal's eyes are closed. To the left of the head and ending at the tip of the nose is written the word KIND, and a little lower - the word TEMPLE.

I find the second temple a little lower and to the left of the first. On it you can also see either the head of a lioness full face with a squinted eye (left half), or the head of an old woman (right half) with a 3/4 turn to the left, which I show separately. At eye level I read the words TEMPLE OF MARY.

I believe that in this screenshot you can find a number of faces and inscriptions, but I do not set myself such a task.

Discussion.

Finally, we can put an end to the search for Hyperborea - Hyperborea was understood as the current Greenland, which the Russians some time ago called Greeva Rus, and which, by consonance, became known as Gren Land. However, in Greenland, which with the help of georadar turned out to be on a map cleared of ice and snow, in this article such geoglyphs were found that clearly testified to the correctness of the names that I found on the Mercator map. Namely, listing from north to south clockwise: Arctida Mask Yar, Arctida Makosh, Arctida Yar and Arctida Mara.

At the same time, it turned out that Mercator, who depicted Arctorus along with Greenland on his maps, made Arctorus a lot larger than Greenland. Thus, I noticed the first absurdity, noting in my earlier articles on this problem the presence of Mercator's doubling of Scandinavia. Now I state the doubling of Greenland, which figures both as Greenland (little similar to modern outlines and shallow) and as Hyperborea (even less similar to Greenland). Moreover, in this article, in addition to the discrepancy in size and shape, I also found a discrepancy in orientation. Thus, as I assumed, the Mercator map can only be used as a hint at Arctorus, but not at all as its exact image.

At the same time, the division of Arctorus into four parts can be done in several different ways, depending on where the bays that separated them passed. I made an attempt to draw them where the ground level on the map of ice-free Greenland is minimal. The result is the view shown in Fig. 7.

Rice. 7. A possible variant of dividing Arctorus into four Arctids

True, with such a division, it turns out that each of the Arctids has its own area. The largest is the southern Arctida, Yar. The second turns out to be Mara, while the Mask of Yara and Makosh are approximately the same, and small.

Arctida Yar turns out to be the most convenient for contact with Europe, and there is nothing surprising that Rus Yar arises just along the path of the shortest distance to Europe. But it is more convenient to contact Russia from eastern Arctida, from Makosh. The closest to the islands of Canada is from Arctida Mary, and from Mask Yar the closest, perhaps, to Alaska. So geographical position may be the cause of dispersal.

Conclusion.

However, having found Arctorus (Hyperborea), one should not dwell on what was considered in this article. It makes sense to study modern Greenland in order to search for the faces of the gods and inscriptions in the form of geoglyphs.

Literature

1. Chudinov V.A.. Russian inscriptions on Dutch maps. Site site dated January 14, 2013
2. Chudinov V.A.. Geographic maps of the Temple of Yar.

Greenland without ice

Chudinov V.A.

The search for Hyperborea as Arctorus led me to the Mercator map, where I was able to establish the names of each of the Arctids. The southeastern one, but incomplete (probably partly sunken), was called the Yara Mask. The northeastern one was called Rus Mary, the northwestern one - Yar and the southwestern one - Makosh. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 1, where the captioned image is moved from .

Rice. 1. The name Arctid on the map of Mercator

However, while working on the article, I was able to get acquainted with the image of the Wikipedia article "Greenland", where this island was depicted without ice. It seemed to me that Greenland in this form has an internal reservoir and very realistically consists of 4 parts. True, there are no straits between them, but they could later be brought in by various layers. In any case, it seemed to me not too significant. And then the question arose - is it possible to consider Greenland, free of ice, a real Hyperborea, that is, Arctorus, consisting of 4 Arctids? To do this, it was necessary to conduct a study consisting of reading inscriptions on Greenland without ice, and this article is just such a study.

Rice. 2 Ice Free Greenland (Wikipedia)

Greenland map. There are several interesting areas to be seen here. So, in the extreme south, mountains are visible (shown in red), forming, as it were, an image of a man's face. And on the left side, on the plain, you can see the face of a man without a mustache and beard, but with a very long nose and narrow slits of the eyes. Mountains are visible on the right side. The lowest part of the plain is in the center, descending to the inland sea. The northern part is the smallest, and also quite mountainous.

Rice. 3. My reading of the inscriptions

My reading of the inscriptions. First, I read the inscription on the southern part, where you can see the full face of a man's face. The inscriptions are not clearly visible because of the ice sheet above them. Therefore, they seem to be slightly blurred. First I try to read the inscription at the level of the mouth and below. It seems to me that the words are written in capital letters here YARA RUSS. On the Mercator map, Fig. 1. Arctida Yar should correspond to this phrase.

If so, then the second Arctida, on the right on the map of Greenland, should be called Makosh. I select the mountain fragment where I suspect the presence of an inscription, rotate it so that it is horizontal, and read the inscription. The words are written here MAKEUP(the letter M is very blurred, the letter A is superimposed on top of the letter Z) ARCTORUS(in two lines, the first letter A is superimposed on the letter Zh of the previous word). Thus, my expectation was justified, although the specific inscription turned out to be slightly different.

The third Arctida, to the left of Yar, would then be Mara. I select the fragment corresponding to the narrow-eyed face and read the inscription on the eyes. This MARA. This assumption is also confirmed.

Then the last area should be Yar's Mask Arctida. Therefore, I highlight a section of the northern territory and read the inscription on the plain in two lines there. The word TEMPLE is read on the top line, and MASKS on the bottom line. On the right on the top line you can read the word YARA. So before us TEMPLE OF THE MASK YAR.

All the names of the Arctides generally agreed. Arktida Yar corresponds to the name YARA Rus', Arktida Makazh - MAKAZH ARKTORUS, Arktida Mask Yara - TEMPLE OF THE MASK YARA, Arktida Rus Mary - MARA. Such small discrepancies are quite acceptable.

The search for the city of Polo. The city of Polo had an approximately circular structure, and Mount Meru was located in the center of its reservoir. If you look at the inland sea /, elongated vertically, then its northern part forms not so much a ring as a very elongated oval. But its southern part consists of three parts. The upper part closes through a small island, but forms a kind of elongated area. It can hardly be considered a ring. The middle part has, to some extent, the shape of the letter Z. It also cannot be considered a ring. But the lower part does not form an ideal circle, but looks like a kind of blot. However, what is surprising is that the bays are approximately the same distance from one center. Moreover, in this center there is a small point - a mountain. Isn't it Meru?

I tried to copy this place and see if there are any inscriptions. On fig. 3 I showed that the northern part of this third fragment seems to contain 4 letters that form a word POLO. This is the name of the capital of Arctorus, which is located in the north of the third fragment. And in the south the words are read THE WORLD OF YARA MAKEUP.

So, it seems that all four Arctides were found, and even the capital of Arctorus, the city of Polo. For now, that's enough.

Rice. 4. Correspondence of the location of Hyperborea with real Greenland

About Hyperborea on the Mercator map. If you compare the location of the Arctides on the Mercator map, you can see that the map is rotated a lot compared to the real Greenland. On fig. 4, I tried to rotate his map and stretch it a little in height, but I still didn’t get a complete resemblance. Nevertheless, it became clear to me that Mercator adjusted the image of the Arctides to the north pole, that is, not knowing about the displacement of the North Pole, he made a “geographical remake”, a kind of “geographical fiction”. Perhaps he himself did not assume this. But, regardless of his personal desires, he (if Hyperborea is Greenland) greatly distorted both the position and the shape of the Arctids.

Rice. 5. Identification of fragments at the southern cape

The search for Cape Krumia. On the map of Mercator, I found Cape Crumia, which was located in the direction of America. When converted to the real position of Greenland, it should be in the very south. Checking this point of view is not difficult, just look at the southernmost cape of Greenland from space. I chose a picture from a height of 71 km above the ground.

Now, in the screenshot of current Greenland from Google Earth, I show the southernmost cape of Greenland, measuring 63 km in width. As can be seen from this image, it is almost completely covered with snow and ice, and only part of the coast is free of them.

It is clear that the areas where, as it seems to me, there are inscriptions, I outlined with frames. On fig. 6 I read these inscriptions.

Rice. 6. My reading of the inscriptions on the southern cape

My reading of the inscriptions on the southern cape. The inscriptions are clearly visible. Especially on the largest fragment on the right. There is an impression that the letters are duplicated. I consider the largest ones and read: CRUMIA. This is the word I'm looking for (in one place the letters U and I are written in the top line, the letter M is in the bottom line, the letter P is written in reversed color). In addition to this word, there are three more words that I circled in smaller boxes. In sum, they give the inscription CAPE Rus' YARA. Indeed, both on the Folsom Stone and on the Mercator map, Cape Crumia is located on Arctida Yar. So not only the name of the cape (not related to modern Eskimos and their language) was confirmed, but also its belonging to Arctida Yar.

By the way, the inscriptions on the screenshot of Greenland turned out to be a real test and the strongest proof that it was Greenland that was Arctorus (or, in the Greek sense, Hyperborea).

It was also clear to me that if Cape Crumia was so popular in the ancient world, there must have been several temples near it. Therefore, I began to look for these temples in the screenshot. And, of course, I found it. I circled one of them with a black frame. It shows the head of a lion from the front, with a slight inclination to the right. The animal's eyes are closed. To the left of the head and ending at the tip of the nose is written the word KIND, and a little lower - the word TEMPLE.

I find the second temple a little lower and to the left of the first. On it you can also see either the head of a lioness full face with a squinted eye (left half), or the head of an old woman (right half) with a 3/4 turn to the left, which I show separately. At eye level I read the words TEMPLE OF MARY.

I believe that in this screenshot you can find a number of faces and inscriptions, but I do not set myself such a task.

100 great secrets of the Earth Alexander Volkov

Greenland Glaciers: A Key to the Past and the Future

Unbearable cold, endless glaciers and polar bears roaming freely - such a picture appears before our eyes, one has only to think about Greenland. However, this unique landscape, which holds many secrets of the past, may disappear. What does this mean for our planet?

At first glance, it seems that with the retreat of the glaciers, which “keep under a bushel” a tenth of the land, the territory suitable for human settlement will increase. In fact, over time, it will noticeably decrease. The melting of glaciers only contributes to the fact that the level of the World Ocean is rising. Retreating on one - unimportant - front, losing a mountain war, water (ice is frozen water, after all) takes revenge on land on another - the main - theater of operations. The age-old struggle between the two elements, water and earth, will again end with the expected defeat of the latter. Someday the ocean will flood many lowlands and islands. We will lose the best, habitable. We will find an impregnable stone of the mountain slopes.

Today, the Earth is losing an incredible amount of ice every year. In the end, melt water flows into the sea. However, until recently it was not possible to estimate its volume. Everything had to be guesswork. After all, there are more than 200 thousand glaciers on the planet, but scientists conducted regular observations only for a few hundred of them - mainly for glaciers located in the Alps.

Meanwhile, over the past century and a half, the water level in the World Ocean has risen by a couple of millimeters annually. For the most part, this increase was due to the thermal expansion of water, because average temperature on the planet during this time has increased by almost a degree. However, the melting of glaciers has also contributed.

Now the fate of the seas of our entire planet is being decided in the Arctic. Further rise in the level of the World Ocean largely depends on the rate of melting of the Greenland glaciers. Almost 80% of the territory of the largest island of the Earth is covered with ice. Their height reaches three and a half kilometers. But is their peace so unshakable?

Eskimo country, country eternal ice is changing before our eyes. Glaciers are melting, sliding into the sea. Is Greenland going to be ice-free soon? Its largest glaciers hold, like a bracket, an ice sheet covering the island. And if they melt, then the shield will move, slowly roll towards the sea. In this case, its level will increase much more than is commonly expected.

But what do we really know about these glaciers? At what speed do they melt? These questions have long been controversial among scientists. So far they have explored only part of Greenland. Accordingly, the perspectives of many coastal regions and cities also differ.

However, in 2012 on the pages of the magazine Science published an article whose authors rejected the most gloomy forecasts. Apparently, the rate at which Greenland's glaciers are melting varies markedly, as does the rate at which they slide into the sea. Based on satellite observations, Twyla Moon of the University of Washington and her colleagues for the first time have compiled a map showing the speed of movement of almost 200 Greenland glaciers since 2000.

This made it possible to discard some preconceived hypotheses. It turned out that the glaciers of Greenland are melting more slowly than expected. Calculations showed that over the past 10 years, the speed of their movement in the northwest and southeast of the island, including the Kangerlussuaq glacier, the largest in Greenland, should have doubled. Instead, it increased by only 30%. In addition, some glaciers during the same time slowed down their movement or, at best, retained their previous speed.

As the researchers note, the behavior of Greenland's glaciers changes from year to year, they pulsate. Therefore, it is impossible to predict what will happen to them in the coming years, even knowing how they have changed over the past decades. We do not know, such is the verdict, whether they will continue to melt or whether they will begin to grow.

Greenland's glaciers are of particular interest to climatologists

So it's too early to calm down. One thing is known: these glaciers are very sensitive to global warming. Now, for example, the most large glaciers in the north of Greenland almost never melt. But it may well be that in the coming decades there will be drastic climate changes that will just cause their rapid melting.

Meanwhile, in 2012 on the pages of the magazine Nature Climate Change computer model has been published. It shows that even with an increase in the average temperature on the planet by only 0.8 ° C, the irreversible process of melting the glaciers of Greenland will begin. project leader Andrei Ganopolsky from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

The fact is that between the melting of the glaciers of Greenland (as well as glaciers in general) and the climate there is a stable Feedback. The more the area is reduced, occupied by ice, the less sunlight falling on them, they reflect. On the contrary, areas of the earth's surface, freed from ice, intensively absorb sunlight, and therefore everything warms up more noticeably. In addition, the upper layers of the glaciers of Greenland lie at an altitude of more than 3000 meters above sea level. The more glaciers melt, the more obvious their height will decrease, and the closer we are to the Earth’s surface, the warmer the air becomes, the more glaciers will melt, the more obvious their height will decrease, and the closer… The warming flywheel spins.

Of course, the above does not mean that the Greenland ice sheet will melt like April snowdrifts outside the window - right before our eyes. Its melting will last ... 50 thousand years (for comparison: this is exactly how much time has passed since a person of the modern type settled in Europe).

But the higher the average temperature, the faster the ice will melt. For example, if we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the temperature in Greenland will increase by 8 °C in the summer months by the end of this century. In this case, the ice of Greenland will almost completely melt in “only” 2000 years, and by 2500 20% of the local ice will disappear. Nothing like this has happened on our planet in the last 2000 years. How fast will the sea level rise? How will this change geographic map peace? What to expect and fear hundreds of millions of people living near the coast? All these are the most important questions that interest climate researchers.

The melting of the ice sheet that shackles Greenland can be seen as one of the most dramatic effects of global warming. If it ever melts completely, the level of the world's oceans will rise by 7 meters. “And this is already very serious,” Academician V.M. Kotlyakov. - New York, and Petersburg, and Holland, and even our Western Siberia which is almost at sea level.

Another danger. The melting of the Greenland glaciers will lead to the fact that the salt content in the northern part Atlantic Ocean will go down. Density will decrease sea ​​water. It will stop sinking into the depths of the ocean off the coast of Iceland. In the end it will change character sea ​​currents off the coast of Europe. The Gulf Stream will stop and will no longer heat the coast of the Old World. However, it is still unclear whether the effect of stopping the Gulf Stream will be stronger than global warming.