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Science 17 February 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5763, p. 913
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5763.913f
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How much meltwater the Greenland Ice Sheet may be contributing to global sea-level rise depends on the mass balance between the interior of the ice sheet and its margins. The present understanding is that the interior is gaining mass but the margins are eroding even more rapidly. Rignot and Kanagaratnam (p. 986; see the Perspective by Dowdeswell) present an ice velocity map of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet and estimate the rate of ice discharge around its entire margin. A comparison of their results to past data shows that there has been a widespread acceleration of ice flow since 1996, that mass loss has doubled in that time, and that ice dynamics, which are particularly dependent on warming, dominate the rapid retreat of Greenland's glaciers.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)