September 12, 2024
Greenland Had Far less Ice Just a Few Thousand Years Ago
Jim Church
Few people know that half of Greenland's ice has formed over the past 4000 years as the Earth began to cool following the end of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM).
Aerial surveillance using ice penetrating radar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0VbPE0TOtQ) has been able to identify distinct layers corresponding to ice that has formed during the current neoglacial phase of the Holocene Interglacial, as well as the residual ice from the Last Glacial Maximum that did not melt during the HTM, together with the very small residual ice left over from the Eemain Thermal Maximum (ETM). The ETM was the peak state of warming in the Eemain Interglacial, which is known from paleorecords to have been significantly warmer than the HTM. Whatever ice has melted in Greenland over the past couple of decades, pales in comparison to the ice that melted during either the ETM or HTM.
Of course, this implies that "global average" sea levels were AT LEAST 3 meters higher during the HTM than today.
Tim adds:
They've found Viking villages under melting ice caps. It's clear a large swath of Greenland was once far more habitable than now.
Few people know that half of Greenland's ice has formed over the past 4000 years as the Earth began to cool following the end of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM).
Aerial surveillance using ice penetrating radar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0VbPE0TOtQ) has been able to identify distinct layers corresponding to ice that has formed during the current neoglacial phase of the Holocene Interglacial, as well as the residual ice from the Last Glacial Maximum that did not melt during the HTM, together with the very small residual ice left over from the Eemain Thermal Maximum (ETM). The ETM was the peak state of warming in the Eemain Interglacial, which is known from paleorecords to have been significantly warmer than the HTM. Whatever ice has melted in Greenland over the past couple of decades, pales in comparison to the ice that melted during either the ETM or HTM.
Of course, this implies that "global average" sea levels were AT LEAST 3 meters higher during the HTM than today.
Tim adds:
They've found Viking villages under melting ice caps. It's clear a large swath of Greenland was once far more habitable than now.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:40 AM
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Eric "The Red" Thorvaldson didn't name it Greenland because he was color-blind. When he led a bunch of Icelanders to colonize the island during the Medieval Warm Period, they successfully farmed it -- until the climate turned cold again and the farms died out and the people starved.
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at September 12, 2024 11:27 PM (Ys0s/)
2
Indeed so Dana. It was a thriving colony at first and that because agriculture was possible. Not any longer.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at September 13, 2024 07:05 AM (C7GoI)
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