Greenland isshedding icelike a popsicle on defrost , and climate change is to blame . But some of Greenland ’s tight - flowing glaciers may also be feeling the burn of different heating plant source — one that hails from Earth ’s deep inside .
Astudyout today in Nature Scientific Reports offers evidence of a significant geothermal heating system source warming the bottom of a fiord in northeasterly Greenland . This warmth rootage , which rough match to a 2 megawatt ( MW ) tip turbine powering a heater beneath the fjord ( or enough power to perch uproughly 1,600 American dwelling ) , lubricate the foundation of overlying glaciers , potentially accelerating their journey toward the sea .
It ’s among the first lineal measurements of geothermic heat flux in Greenland , but the determination do n’t really come as a surprisal : geothermic hot springs have been distinguish all over Earth ’s tumid island . Northeast Greenland , in particular , is known to boast “ abundant geothermal activity , ” as study lead author Soren Rysgaard of Aarhus University put it in a statement .
As study co - writer Jørgen Bendtsen explained to Earther in an email , the study was prompt by unusually high temperature readings observed at the bottom of the Young Sound fiord , a 56 - mile - farsighted fiord in northeasterly Greenland , in 2005 . The investigator pack temperature measurements in the deepest part of the fiord for the next ten years , and used them to estimate a geothermic heat state of flux of rough 100 mW per straight meter .
As the authors observe , that ’s “ much high ” than previously reported values from southerly Greenland , but fall in line with some indirect measurement of geothermic passion in central northerly Greenland . “ commingle our measurements with other sites of reported geothermal natural action around Greenland clearly shows that East Greenland is a hotspot , ” the authors drop a line .
Mathieu Morlighem , an water ice sheet modeler at the University of California , Irvine who was n’t involved with the subject field , said the raw data is of import because “ we bed geothermal heat is very important [ in Greenland ] , and we know very niggling about it . The doubt is close to 100 percent , ” he said .
He emphasized , however , that while realise geothermic heat is important for improving model of Greenland ’s glacier , it does n’t explain why many coastal glacier are dwindling rapidly today . That ’s due to human C emissions mess up with the planetary thermostat .
“ There ’s a subtext that peradventure increased geothermic heat fluxion could be the reasonableness why this glacier is accelerating , ” Morlighem said . “ My take is this spot has probably been hot for one thousand of years , and the internal-combustion engine stream has align . And the change we see are more related to to climate change . ”
Mike MacFerrin , a glaciologist at the University of Colorado who also was n’t involved , added that the findings are logical with other study advise geothermal passion may be part of the understanding the nearby Northeast ice flow — a hundreds - of - mile - recollective ice flow that debilitate into several monumental coastal glacier — is moving so fast . He , too , underscore that the destabilisation of those coastal glaciers in recent age isdue to mood change .
In other words , if we require to prevent Greenland frommelting much furtherand adding many feet of sea layer to our coastlines in decades to issue forth , we ’ve begin to get carbon paper in the atmosphere under control .
Though , if we do n’t , at least future man be on glass - free Greenland will have an abundant origin of clean energy ?
Climate changeGlaciologyice on thin ice
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