The Splendor of Greenland's Ice Sheet Crumbling Away

For the past several years, scientists have been tracking the transformation of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Now it's shrinking faster than ever, and a new study proves it has lost 1500 gigatons of mass from 2000 to 2008.

That is an enormous amount of mass, and has resulted in the sea level rising about .46 millimeters per year, on average. Sea levels are rising more quickly in recent years though: From 2006 to 2008, it rose about 0.75 mm per year. Researchers, who published their findings in Science today, used both on-the-ground observations and combined them with satellite observations and both methods gave consistent results. Melting of the entire sheet is predicted to raise sea levels globally by about 20 feet, flooding many major cities.

These gorgeous photographs, taken by the science team during their research, show the unearthly beauty of massive ice sheet landscapes. Someday, this landscape may truly be science fiction - or at least, geological history.

via BBC News