Greenland glacier flood horror: 3,000 billion litres of meltwater unleashed in Greenland. Within the miage, a towering melting iceberg within the icy ocean. Snow lined glacier drifts beneath blue sunny sky.
Credit score: Shutterstock, Mozgova
‘The power unleashed by the flood was equal to the output of the world’s largest nuclear energy plant working at full tilt for 22 days.’
“15 million individuals worldwide dwell beneath the specter of lethal glacial floods.”
Scientists witness one of many largest floods in recorded historical past.
In a chilling first, researchers from the College of Copenhagen have captured the dramatic second when one of many world’s largest glacial lake floods tore by East Greenland. Over 3,000 billion litres of meltwater – sufficient to fill three years’ value of Denmark’s water wants – burst free, making it one of many prime three largest occasions of its form ever documented.
Bathtub burst: A watery catastrophe of epic proportions
Image a mountain-top bathtub the scale of a rustic, brimming with water, abruptly tipping over. That’s precisely what occurred when Catalina Lake, a colossal glacial lake in East Greenland, gave means. Between September 23 and October 11, its water degree plunged 154 metres, releasing a staggering 3.4 cubic kilometres of water into Scoresby Sound fjord, the planet’s largest fjord system.
“We’ve beforehand discovered traces of comparable outburst floods, however as a result of polar evening and clouds obstructing the potential for satellite tv for pc observations, that is the primary time that researchers have been in a position to monitor an occasion and measure the water volumes in actual time,” mentioned Aslak Grinsted, a local weather researcher on the College of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute.
An icy cataclysm within the making
Catalina Lake had been quietly accumulating meltwater for 20 years, held again by the Edward Bailey Glacier – a towering ice dam. Because the strain constructed, the water ultimately carved a 25-kilometre tunnel beneath the ice, exploding into the fjord. This phenomenon, referred to as a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), is turning into alarmingly frequent as world temperatures soar.
“The hazard from glacier-dammed lakes is growing as a result of world warming. It’s important to enhance our understanding of this phenomenon to difficulty well timed warnings ought to there be an imminent danger,” defined Grinsted.
Whereas this specific flood spared Greenland’s sparse inhabitants, its world implications are chilling. “A 2023 research concluded that 15 million individuals worldwide dwell beneath the specter of lethal glacial floods,” he mentioned.
A ticking time bomb for future floods
Grinsted painted a grim image of what’s to come back. “I count on that we will witness outbursts from even bigger ice-dammed lakes as Greenland’s ice sheet retreats in coming centuries. On the finish of the final Ice Age, Lake Missoula had an outburst that was 2,500 instances bigger than the latest Catalina occasion. To grasp these large forces, we should research the most important outbursts once they happen.”
“On this case, the power launched by the glacier flood was equal to the output of the world’s largest nuclear energy plant working at full capability for 22 days,” defined Grinsted.
Based on the researcher, this immense power might, in concept, be harnessed. “It’s value contemplating how you can harness the immense power of such pure phenomena as a supply of inexperienced power,” he added.
However there’s a catch. “As with many different pure sources in Greenland, infrastructure is an issue. But when a superb engineer might work out how you can harness these meltwater outbursts, there’s monumental energy and power potential in them,” mentioned Grinsted.
For now, this stays a dream as the closest settlement – residence to simply 350 individuals – is 180 kilometres away.
Whereas this occasion unfolded in Greenland’s icy wilderness, specialists are urging individuals around the globe to sit down up and take discover. As world warming continues to soften glaciers, these probably devastating outbursts are solely set to rise. The query is, will we be prepared once they strike nearer to residence?
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