GREENLAND - A significant part of the western Greenland ice sheet may reach a tipping point, which would make its current configuration become unstable, a new study suggests.
According to the research article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, the reason for this potential tipping point is due to the ice sheet melting from the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. "Melting reduces ice sheet height, exposing the ice sheet surface to warmer temperatures, which further accelerates melting," the study authors wrote. "We reveal early-warning signals for a forthcoming critical transition from ice-core-derived height reconstructions and infer that the western Greenland Ice Sheet has been losing stability in.