The Icelandic glaciers and icecaps have lost their ice mass by 200km2 since 1995, This loss of ice mass is the equivalent to 71 times the volume of lake Thingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. Icenews recently published an article about the downwasting of Icelandic glaciers causing perturbations in the Earth’s gravity field near Iceland. The small scale glaciers and icecaps in Iceland give scientists an ideal research opportunity to monitor the downsizing of icecaps and glaciers in Greenland and the arctic region and its effect on the planet.
Morgunbladid daily newspaper in Iceland made a detailed report about the findings of a recent study by The Danish National Space Institute, The Icelandic Institute of Earth Sciences and The Icelandic Meteorological Office today. The study has shown that the loss of ice mass can be measured from space with the GRACE satellites’ monthly gravity field models. Measurements show the Icelandic ice caps steadily lessening since 1995 at the rate of 10km2 on average per year and the downwaisting of such large masses of ice in the arctic region is interfering with the earth´s gravity.
A newly published article in Geophysical Journal International explains “that the ice mass changes of the Icelandic ice caps derived from GRACE gravity field models are influenced by both the large gravity change signal resulting from ice mass loss in southeast Greenland and the mass redistribution within the Earth mantle due to glacial isostatic adjustment since the Little Ice Age (?1890 AD).”