Cracks on the surface of the glaciers - the embodiment of a confusing range of the scale of the Ice shield of Greenland. Formed by stresses on the surface, their direction and size tell scientists how the ice shield flows to the ocean, writes Science Alert.

Far from the rapidly moving glaciers, annually discarding hundreds of gigatons of icebergs in the fjords, cracks can be tiny - only a few millimeters wide width. However, as ice movement accelerated, they can also reach several meters in diameter. Sometimes these cracks are covered with deceptive snow bridges, to overcome which the corresponding protective equipment and rescue preparation is required. Finally, where the ice meets the ocean, and not a single scientist will never dare to stand, they can be monsters more than 100 meters from wall to wall.

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A new study found that these cracks increase throughout Greenland. Scientists are not particularly surprising that cracks become more throughout the ice shield, however, as the ocean heats up, the ice cover is accelerated in response, increasing the load acting on its surface.

At the same time, observations from satellites and personal field work are so scarce that today scientists simply have no idea how widely and quickly this process is happening. In a new study, the team led by Tom Chadli from the University of Daremsky struck cracks throughout Greenland's ice shield in 2016 and 2021. For this, scientists used three -dimensional surface maps of the polar regions based on high resolution satellite images.

Scientists have used the methods of processing images to more than 8,000 map, which allowed them to evaluate how much water, snow and air will be required to “fill” each crack throughout the ice shield. As a result, scientists were able to calculate the depth and volume of cracks, as well as study how they developed.

The results indicate that from 2016 to 2021 there was a significant increase in the volume of cracks in the fast -flowing sectors of the Greenland ice shield. In the southeast of the ice shield, in the area that was especially vulnerable to the acceleration and retreat caused by the ocean, over the past few years, the volume of cracks has increased by more than 25%.

At the same time, the total volume of cracks throughout the ice shield increased by only 4.3% - this is much closer to the total balance than extreme values \u200b\u200bobserved in certain sectors. Researchers tried to figure out what happened and came to the conclusion that significant growth in other places was compensated by one sources: the output glaciers, known as the Kuyallek cracker.

Note that Sermek-Kuyallek is the fastest glacier on the planet, reaching a speed of almost 50 meters a day and providing a huge share of Greenland's general contribution to an increase in sea level.

In 2016, scientists noticed that the glacier reacted to the flow of cold water from the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean, as a result of which it slowed down and became thicker. As the process, as the scientists noted, the cracks on the surface began to close, compensating for the increase throughout the rest of the ice shield. This slowdown was short -term and by 2018 the glacier returned to acceleration and thinning in response to the ongoing warming of the planet. Alas, scientists believe that people will not be able to influence the glacier in the future in order to compensate for the increase in crevice throughout the ice shield in the future.

According to scientists, crevices underlie the dynamic processes taking place in Greenland and Antarctica. However, these processes have been studied very poorly, and their future evolution is the greatest uncertainty in our forecasts of increasing sea level. Together, an increase in ice flow can lead to an increase in sea level by 10 meters by 2300, as a result of which more than 5 million people will lose their homes.

Previously, Focus wrote that scientists from NASA weighed Greenland - the largest island on earth.