The study, published in the journal Science, has raised concerns that Greenland’s ice sheets may not be as stable as previously thought and provides insight into how the region’s landscape may respond to climate change.
Greenland may have been green and ice-free just 416,000 years ago, according to new research.
The study, published in the journal Science, has raised concerns that Greenland’s ice sheets may not be as stable as previously thought and provides insight into how the region’s landscape may respond to climate change.
The researchers analyzed sediment extracted from an ice core collected in the area, which showed traces of leaves and moss from that period.
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It says much of Greenland’s ice melted when the Earth warmed moderately 424,000 to 374,000 years ago, causing global sea levels to rise between 5 and 20 feet.
The research contradicts the widely held view that much of the Greenland Ice Sheet has been around for at least a million years, if not longer.
Paul Bierman, geologist and professor at the University of Vermont in the United States, said: “This is really the first bulletproof evidence that much of the Greenland ice sheet disappeared when it warmed.”
Ice cores are cylinders of ice drilled from glaciers and ice caps that are essentially frozen time capsules, allowing scientists to reconstruct Earth’s climate millions of years ago.
The ice core analyzed in the new research is 12 feet long and was drilled at Camp Century in northwest Greenland, which served as a secret base for the US military during the Cold War.
The ice sample was forgotten in a freezer for decades and accidentally rediscovered in 2017.
The researchers also found that the sediments in the ice core were deposited by running water during a warming period called Marine Isotope Stage 11.
Besides being ice-free, Greenland may have been transformed into a tundra at this time covered in trees with wandering woolly mammoths or even a boreal forest.
The research authors said the study is key to understanding how the Greenland Ice Sheet will respond to global warming in the future.
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The region’s ice caps contain enough water to cause a sea level rise of 23ft, scientists have said, putting every coastal city in the world at risk.
Professor Bierman said: “Greenland’s past, preserved in 12 feet of frozen ground, suggests a warm, humid and largely ice-free future for planet Earth unless we can dramatically reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
“Four hundred thousand years ago there were no cities on the coast and now there are cities on the coast,” he added.
Tammy Rittenour, a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Utah State University, said, “If we only melt parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet, sea levels rise dramatically.
“Forward modeling melting rates and the response to high carbon dioxide, we’re looking at meters of sea level rise, probably tens of meters.”
