Warming-stoked tides eating huge holes in Greenland glacier

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

Scientists now fear increasingly warmer water in daily tides are doing much more damage to one of Greenland’s glaciers than they thought. A study published Monday examined the Petermann glacier in far northwestern Greenland. Warmer water from climate change is eating a large hole deep inside the glacier and accelerating ice loss at its key connection point with the ocean floor. The hole is bigger than the Washington Monument. Researchers say if this is happening on the rest of the world’s ice sheets, global ice loss and sea level rise could be twice as fast as previously thought.