Greenland's glaciers

Scientists studying Greenland's glaciers say seasonal melting has increased, and was greater last year than at any time in almost three decades.
When the glaciers are in equilibrium, spring melting matches the added winter snow. But the glaciers have been shrinking with higher temperatures.

Jay Zwally, a glaciologist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, observed from a plane as he headed home on his most recent research trip that six miles of the Jakobshavn Glacier had fallen into the fjord, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The glacier is the largest of the rivers of ice that flow out of the Greenland ice cap.

Studies of ice cores from Greenland have found a history of sudden climate shifts with average temperatures rising as much as 15 degrees in a decade.

Total melting of the Greenland ice cap would raise sea levels worldwide about 21 feet, although even with continued rising temperatures its total disappearance would take hundreds or even thousands of years, the newspaper said.