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Environment

Hundreds of Greenland's glacial lakes have burst since 2008

Using satellite data, researchers identified hundreds of glacial lakes in Greenland that flooded their frozen shores over the past decade – helping speed up global sea level rise

By Theo Nicitopoulos

22 July 2024

Icebergs floating in the Labrador Sea, Nuuk Fjord, Sermersooq, Greenland; Shutterstock ID 1838040322; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Icebergs floating in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland

Shutterstock/Keith Levit

Thousands of lakes dot Greenland’s coast, their waters held back by walls of ice. But sometimes, the meltwater can surge through and spill into the sea. The first survey of its kind has found a 1200 per cent increase in the number of such leaky lakes compared with how many had previously been documented to burst, which could help better model sea level rise.

The biggest factor in this spike is underreporting, according to the researchers, but it is possible that a rapidly warming Arctic has played…

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