What would Greenland look like without an ice sheet?

Perhaps many of you know whichGlobal warming could lead to negative consequences. However, far few of you know that among the negative aspects of this phenomenon, you can find positive ones. For example, it is thanks to global warming that we will be able to see many places hidden in the present days, on which the human foot has never set foot. Among such amazing places we can see Greenland freed from ice.

Process is irreversible

Greenland loses about 23 every secondtons of ice. This result may seem quite frightening, given the fact that the island loses more than 2 billion tons per day in the summer. However, even with such indicators, Greenland will be able to free itself from ice only after a few hundred years.

The fact is that most of the surface itselfthe largest island in the world is covered by the so-called ice sheet - a unique glacier, an analogue of which exists only in Antarctica. The giant glacier boasts a solid age - it is more than 200 thousand years old! In addition, its thickness in some places of the island reaches as much as 3,000 meters above the surface!

When is such a unique natural formationwill melt, the level of the world's oceans will rise by more than 7 meters, which will entail the flooding of some European countries and many coastal cities around the planet.

A huge lake hides under the ice of Greenland

If ever filmmakers of the future wantshoot a sci-fi action movie in a place with alien landscapes, then most likely they will want to shoot it on the territory of modern Greenland.

The fact is that as a result of many yearsResearch Greenland ice sheet, an international team of scientists has developed a relief map of the subglacial region of the island. In the relief model they presented, you can see a giant canyon, whose length is more than 750 kilometers and the width is more than 10 kilometers. At present, at the bottom of the canyon, under an kilometers-long layer of ice, there is an ancient lake, which is formed due to melt water, miraculously seeping through the ice cover as a result of active processes of global warming.

See also: Greenland began to melt. And this is a problem for the whole world.

In the future, when Greenland finally takes offits ice fetters, the canyon can be filled with water, forming a large-scale reservoir in the heart of the island. By that time, Greenland itself could be covered with lush vegetation, although now all representatives of the local flora have to be content with only small sections of land free from permafrost in the south-west of this northern island.

In addition, scientists note the fact that according toas the ice sheet drops, Greenland can greatly affect global tectonics. The colossal weight of the glacier pretty much puts pressure on the earth's crust, which makes the island literally sag under its weight. However, as soon as the ice sheet melts, Greenland can rise above the surface of the ocean.

See also: What happens if the largest glacier of Antarctica melts?

By the way, similar processes are already happening with the Scandinavian countries, which are literally growing against the background of other, more continental European states.

And would you like to visit this still harsh region, which could soon turn into a rather promising place of residence for a person? Write about it on our Telegram channel.