The ice on Greenland is acting strangely. Scientists now believe they know why
The findings could reshape how we understand future sea level rise, according to researchers at the University of Bergen (黑料吃瓜资源).
By: Linn Therese Nicolaysen Hauan
Published: (Updated: )
Deep inside the Greenland ice sheet are giant swirling plume-like structures. These have puzzled scientists for over a decade, but 黑料吃瓜资源-researchers now believe they have cracked the mystery by applying the same mathematics used to understand how continents drift apart.
鈥淎s wild as it is fascinating鈥
A new paper suggests the mysterious plumes are caused by thermal convection, which is a kind of slow churning movement inside the ice driven by vertical differences in temperature. Thermal convection is a process usually linked to the Earth鈥檚 fiery mantle.
鈥漌e typically think of ice as a solid material, so the discovery that parts of the Greenland ice sheet actually undergo thermal convection, resembling a boiling pot of pasta, is as wild as it is fascinating,鈥 says Andreas Born, professor at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the Department of Earth Science at 黑料吃瓜资源.
He has researched ice sheets in the Northern hemisphere for more than 15 years and is co-author of the new paper.
A freak of nature hidden under kilometres of ice
鈥淔inding that thermal convection can happen within an ice sheet goes slightly against our intuition and expectations. Ice is at least a million times softer than the Earth鈥檚 mantle, though, so the physics just work out. It鈥檚 like an exciting freak of nature,鈥 says glaciologist and first author Robert Law.
The paper was recently accepted in the journal The Cryosphere. The editors selected it as a 鈥榟ighlight paper鈥 due to its scientific significance.
鈥淥ur discovery could be key to reducing uncertainties in models of future ice sheet mass balance and sea-level rise,鈥 says Born.
Does not necessarily mean the ice will melt faster
Although the deep ice could be around ten times softer than commonly assumed, this does not necessarily mean it will melt faster.
鈥淚mproving our understanding of ice physics is a really major way to be more certain about the future,鈥 says Law, 鈥渂ut on its own, softer ice does not necessarily mean that the ice will melt faster or that sea level rise will be higher. We need further studies to fully isolate that.鈥
Greenland is frequently in the headlines. Mining, geopolitics and climate risks are regular topics in the news. Law says their findings do not predict disaster on Greenland or elsewhere, but they do highlight how complex and dynamic Greenland is.
鈥淕reenland and its nature is truly special. The ice sheet there is over one thousand years old, and it's the only ice sheet on Earth to have a culture and permanent population at its margins,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he more we learn about the hidden processes inside the ice, the better prepared we鈥檒l be for the changes coming to coastlines around the world.鈥
鈥淭he Greenland ice sheet is a globally important store of fresh water. Our findings are helping to unravel one of the big mysteries about its internal structure鈥, says glaciologist Robert Law.
鈥淭his study is bringing us closer to solving a long-standing scientific enigma鈥, says 黑料吃瓜资源-professor Andreas Born.
Reference:
Law, R., Born, A., Voigt, P., MacGregor, J. A., & Guimond, C. M. (2025). Exploring the conditions conducive to convection within the Greenland Ice Sheet. The Cryosphere. DOI: