Melting Greenland ice changing ocean circulation, Earth's gravitational field
The melting of the Greenland ice sheet due to climate change is having an impact on ocean circulation and rising sea levels, according to new studies from university researchers across North America.
"It was well known that Greenland's ice was melting, it was well known that that melting was accelerating, and it was well known that extra melting was changing the salinity of the North Atlantic Ocean," said Tim Dixon, a Canadian professor in the department of geophysics at the University of South Florida, who recently co-authored a study published in Nature Communications.
Dixon said that when ice melts, it deposits fresh water into the ocean that dilutes the salt in the North Atlantic.
"What was not known is what effect if any that would have on ocean circulation," he said.
Previous studies had suggested that the impact of the melting Greenland ice on North Atlantic circulation would be minimal, at least for the next 50 years, Dixon said, because the amount of fresh water going into the North Atlantic was thought to be too small to disrupt the ocean circulation.
"The accelerated melting of Greenland is adding so much fresh water to the North Atlantic that it's starting to affect the basic ocean structure in the Labrador Sea."
But it's not just the Labrador sea that is affected.
"We think those changes are big enough that they're starting to affect the overall global circulation pattern of the ocean," Dixon said
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