Greenland and Antarctica lose 11.3 trillion tons of ice since 1979

Greenland and Antarctica have lost a combined 11.3 trillion tons of ice since 1979, according to the most comprehensive satellite study of the planet’s ice sheets to date.

Published in Scientific Data, the study is based on data from 27 satellite missions. It is considered the longest-running dataset tracking the condition of the ice sheets. The research found that ice loss has contributed about 3.14 centimeters to the rise in global sea levels.

Lead author Inès Otosaka, a climate scientist at Northumbria University, said the scale of the loss was difficult to visualize. She said 11.3 trillion tons of ice would be enough to fill a cube 23 kilometers high.

Greenland accounted for about 60 percent of the total ice loss. However, Greenland’s ice sheet is approximately eight times smaller than Antarctica’s.

The study showed that ice loss remained relatively stable during the 1970s and 1980s but accelerated from the 1990s onward. The rate of loss increased fourfold between the 1980s and the 2010s.

Scientists said 84 percent of the loss resulted not from surface melting but from glaciers discharging ice into the ocean at a faster rate. This indicates that warming oceans are the main cause. The study noted that Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier has retreated by up to 50 meters a day.

A temporary slowdown in ice loss was observed between 2020 and 2023. Heavy snowfall in East Antarctica and cooler summer conditions in Greenland partly offset losses in other areas.

However, researchers emphasized that this was the result of short-term weather conditions rather than a change in the underlying trend. They said the ice sheets can take decades to respond to climate change, and further losses may already be inevitable even if warming is halted.

Otosaka said the ice sheets are currently one of the main contributors to rising sea levels, accounting for about 25 percent of the increase. She said every additional centimeter of sea-level rise exposes 2 million to 3 million people to the risk of coastal flooding each year.

Researchers estimate that the current sea-level rise caused by the ice sheets places an additional 6 million to 9 million people worldwide at risk from coastal flooding and erosion.

Ice-sheet loss is a major contributor to sea-level rise alongside the thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of mountain glaciers. Greenland and Antarctica together contain enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by many meters, making their long-term stability a key indicator of climate change.