Greenland's land rising 20 cm in a decade due to ice melt: study

While the world is dealing with the threat of rising sea levels due to the melting of Greenland’s ice sheets, an interesting phenomenon is taking place on the Greenlandic mainland. The land is rising at a rate faster than the current sea level.

The study, recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, provides valuable insights into the effects of climate change on Greenland’s landscape.

A new study by DTU Space reveals that Greenland’s bedrock has risen significantly, up to 20 cm over the past decade from 2013 to 2023. This is equivalent to a rise of 2 meters per century. The uplift is expected to continue in the coming years, driven in part by the melting of the ice sheet on top, which relieves pressure on the ground beneath.

“These land uplifts are quite significant and indicate that local changes in Greenland are happening very rapidly,” says Danjal Longfors Berg, a Ph.D. student at DTU Space and the lead author of the study. “These changes are impacting life in Greenland and even altering the country’s map as new land emerges from the sea, leading to the formation of new small islands and skerries over time.”

Data from 61 Greenlandic GPS stations

The research on Greenland’s rising land is based on data collected from GNET, a network of 61 stations situated along the coasts of Greenland. The network is managed by the Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure, a part of the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Utilities.

GNET serves as a crucial geodetic infrastructure, supplying data that helps measure the melting of ice and the uplift of land. According to Morten Hvidberg, the Vice Director of the agency, GNET allows researchers, including those at DTU Space, to accurately track changes in the climate.

The network utilizes GNSS technology, like the GPS system, in combination with long time series data. This allows for the detection of movements in the bedrock over time with a precision of millimeters.

Although PGs cover only 4% of Greenland's total ice-covered area, they contribute over 10% to the overall ice loss. Particularly, in North Greenland, PGs have seen a fourfold increase in mass loss between 2003 and 2021.

To assess the impact on sea-level rise and vertical land movement, researchers examined vertical land motion (VLM) using the Greenland GNSS network (GNET), consisting of 58 continuously operating stations. These stations detect mass loss in both PGs and the GrIS.

The study extends data analysis from 2007 to 2022, revealing that PGs and CanPGs contribute significantly to VLM. By removing the elastic contribution from the GrIS, researchers obtained a viscoelastic trend, offering valuable insights for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models.

Recent climate shifts and ice age hasten land uplift

Everyone well knows that Greenland is rising, just like Denmark. The landmass being pressed down by a thick ice sheet during the last ice age causes this phenomenon. Even though the ice age ended about 12,000 years ago, the release of pressure from the ice still causes the land to rise.

In addition, recent global warming has caused the ice sheet to melt more, leading to additional and much faster local land uplift along Greenland's coast over the past two decades.

"We cannot solely explain the land uplift we observe in Greenland these years by the natural post-ice age development. Greenland experiences a significant rise. Thanks to our data from GNET, we precisely isolate the part of land uplift the current global climate changes cause," says Shfaqat Abbas Khan, a co-author of the new study and a DTU Space Professor.

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