Greenland Ice Sheet

Greenland Ice Sheet, the single ice sheet or glacier covering about 80 percent of the island of Greenland and the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere, globally second in size to only the ice mass that covers Antarctica. It extends 1,380 miles (2,220 km) north-south, has a maximum width of 680 miles (1,094 km) near its northern margin, and has an average thickness of about 5,000 feet (1,500 metres). The Greenland Ice Sheet extends from approximately 60° N to 80° N and thus is not in the polar zone, unlike the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet is protected by cold waters of mostly Arctic origin against the temperate Atlantic waters from the southeast. In volume it contains 12 percent of the world’s glacier ice, and, if it completely melted, sea level would rise 24 feet (7.4 meters).

The Inuit are believed to have crossed to northwest Greenland from North America, using the islands of the Canadian Arctic as stepping-stones, in a series of migrations that stretched from at least 2500 bce to the early 2nd millennium ce. Although the Swedish explorer Baron Nordenskiöld ventured onto the ice sheet in 1870 and 1883, the first known crossing was made by the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen and his party in 1888, traveling from Angmagssalik (Tasiilaq) to Godthåb (Nuuk). Subsequent explorations include those by Robert Peary and Knud Rasmussen.

Geological records show the presence of the ice sheet since the Eocene Epoch, about 56 million to 33.9 million years ago. Deep-sea sediment cores from northeast Greenland, the Fram Strait, and the south of Greenland suggest that the Greenland Ice Sheet has continuously existed since 18 million years ago. More-numerous glaciation records are seen after about 14 million years ago, during the Middle Miocene. A warm interval occurred about 2.4 million years ago, as evidenced by a unit, 328 feet (100 metres) thick, of sand, silt, and clay in northern Greenland. The period from 424,000 to 374,000 years ago is considered to be the best analog to the current global climate, and during this phase Greenland is thought to have been almost ice-free. This geological evidence is often cited by researchers who argue that the Greenland Ice Sheet will soon disappear as global temperatures rise. Most of the ice is believed to have formed during an ice age from 188,000 to 130,000 years ago. The ice sheet expanded during the final Pleistocene glacial advance until about 24,000 years ago, when it covered an area 40 percent larger than its current extent.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

More From Britannica

glacier: Greenland Ice Sheet

The Greenland Ice Sheet occupies a saucerlike basin that has a bedrock surface near sea level under most of Greenland. The ice mass, covering an area of roughly 656,000 square miles (about 1,700,000 square km), is contained by coastal mountains on the east and west. It is thicker in the centre than along its margins and rises to two domes. The northern dome, located in east-central Greenland and reaching more than 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) above sea level, is the area of maximum thickness of the ice sheet and has the lowest mean annual temperature on the ice sheet (−24 °F [−31 °C]). It is separated from the southern dome (8,200 feet [2,500 metres] in elevation) by a depression with a maximum elevation of 7,900 feet (2,400 metres) that runs from the Disko Bay area in the west to the Angmagssalik area in the southeast. The movement of the ice sheet is principally outward from the crest of the ice divide. The margin of the ice sheet reaches the sea in the area of Melville Bay southeast of Thule in the form of large outlet glaciers that calve off into the ocean, producing numerous icebergs.

In the 1970s the Greenland Ice Sheet Program was organized by scientists from the United States, Denmark, and Switzerland. Deep ice cores from the Greenland Ice Sheet were obtained for comparison with deep cores from the Antarctic ice mass to gain a better understanding of the factors controlling present and past ice mass dynamics, atmospheric processes, and the response of ice sheets to climatic change and to determine whether past changes in climate were global or regional in character. Studies of ice cores have also revealed a detailed stratigraphic record of glaciation and vegetation in Greenland. The period from the last glaciation to the present is preserved through fossil records, and it thus provides a record of the flora and fauna of Greenland.

Loss of mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet since the 1990s is well documented, with the ice loss accelerating in the 21st century. The ice loss has been driven by a drop in the surface mass balance (SMB) of the ice sheet itself, caused by solar radiation, air temperature, and amount of precipitation, as well as sharp losses due to iceberg calving. With continued melting, fjords are widening, and this in turn is allowing heat from the air to seep to glacier bases. The consequence of all these changes is an increase in the movement rate of glaciers, which results in further iceberg releases. The Greenland Ice Sheet is thus believed to have contributed 0.4 inch (10.6 mm) to the global sea level rise since the 1990s.