The Greenland Ice Sheet is calculated to have lost a total of 12.5 billion tons of water on Wednesday 31 July 2019, the highest ice loss ever recorded in Greenland in a single day; the last time a comparable loss was recorded was in 2012, when 10 billion tons was lost in a single day, something which was at the time thought to be a once in 250 year event at the time, and comes as part of a total calculated loss of about 197 billion tons of ice in the whole of July, roughly enough to raise global sea levels by about 0.5 mm.
A lake on top of floating ice in the Ilulissat Icefjord on 30 July 2019. Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
The Greenland Ice Sheet contains a total of about 2 850 000 cubic kilometres (about 2 850 000 gigatonnes) of ice, enough to raise global sealevels by about 7.2 m should it all melt. Sea level rise is only caused by the melting of ice on land, since sea-ice is already displacing water, nevertheless, should all the ice currently locked up in glaciers on land (most of which is in Antarctica) melt, then the sealevel would rise by about 70 m, which would have a severe impact on Human civilisation.
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