Glacier caught speeding - 100 times too fast
Greenland’s glaciers seem to be melting down fast: the giant Jakobshavn glacier, which is four miles wide and 300 m thick is now moving towards the sea at a rate of 34 meters a year; the normal annual speed of a glacier is just 30 cm per year.
And the front of the Helheim glacier which has remained in the same place since records began, has retreated four and a half miles in the last four years. Previously scientists talked in terms of the Greenland icecap melting completely over the next 1000 years, but now experts think it could be gone within less than half that time. However, the most pressing issue is that the melting ice threatens to disrupt the Gulf Stream, responsible for Europe’s mild climate, which is driven by very salty water sinking off and drawing warmer water in to replace it.