Greenland’s ice melting into the ocean is one of the biggest contributors to global sea level rise. Its mountain glaciers and floating ice shelves are melting faster than a few decades ago and becoming destabilized. They’ve shrunk in volume by more than 35% since 1978. Greenland’s northern coast is buttressed by floating ice shelves that prevent inland glaciers (part of the ice sheet) from flowing freely into the ocean. The individual glaciers only represent about 4 percent of Greenland’s total ice cover, but account for about 14% of the island’s ice loss. As a result, they’re contributing disproportionately to sea level rise. The behavior of ice shelves is one of the biggest uncertainties currently complicating the IPCC’s estimates about sea level rise.
news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/11/greenlands-glacier-retreat-rate-has-doubled-over-past-two-decades/