Melting Greenland Has Lost 1 Trillion Tons More Ice Than Thought

The Greenland ice sheet, an expanse of frozen water about three times the size of Texas, is disappearing much faster than previously thought, according to new research, and the difference may already be affecting the distribution of heat around the world.

The mass of ice lost between 1985 and 2022 has been underestimated by as much as 20%, or more than 1,000 gigatons (1 trillion metric tons). That’s due to the overlooked impact of calving around Greenland’s perimeter, where the sheet’s glaciers meet the sea, scientists wrote in an article published Wednesday in Nature.

Melting glacier in Scoresby Fjord, eastern Greenland, in August 2023.

Photographer: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images

Using several public datasets, the research team ...