Icelandic Glacial Shrinkage Amongst Highest In The World

Vísir has reported that over the last 130 years, the Icelandic glaciers have lost an average of four billion tonnes of ice per year.

One of the largest causes of this glacial shrinkage is man-made climate change. Other causes include the Gjálp eruption in October 1996, which caused the Vatnajökull glacier to lose approximately 3.7 billion tonnes of ice, and the ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010, which doubled the rate of glacial melt that summer.

Since 1890, the Icelandic glaciers have lost around 410-670 billion tons of ice. Around half of this glacial melt has occurred in the last 25 years.

This rapid melting can be attributed to climate change. Aside from glaciers in Antartica and Greenland, the average shrinking of Icelandic glaciers is amongst the highest in the glacial world. The main consequence of this is the impact it could have on rising sea-levels.

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