IPFS News Link • Environment
How a hotspot in the Earth's mantle fooled the scientists tracking Greenland's ice loss
• newatlas.com by Nick LavarsDue to the slow-shifting of Earth's crust in the region, this same hotspot sat beneath Greenland millions of years ago. And when it did, a new study has found, it softened the mantle rock in a way that has recently come to fool scientists trying to gauge ice loss in the area. So much so, that it has been losing around 20 gigatons per year more than we previously thought.
Because gravity is related to mass, scientists are able to use satellites to map the Earth's gravitational field and make assessments on the overall structure of the planet. As some surface features contain more mass than others, the resulting variations in gravity can allow them to measure things like water stored below and above the ground, mass within the Earth and melting ice sheets.