Greenland is melting – an animation Published 01.02.2023

Greenland is a large island covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the second largest ice mass on the planet. Ice sheets respond dynamically to climate change. During the Last Glacial Maximum (21.000 years ago) the Greenland Ice Sheet extended all the way to the adjacent continental shelf break. Since then, the ice sheet has lost over 40% of its area and volume with a culminating melting event (called deglaciation) around 12.000 years ago.

At the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, we recognize the growing interest in climate change, especially concentrated around Greenland and Arctic regions and we wish to contribute to the societal consciousness of this far-reaching phenomenon. Our novel project ‘Melting Greenland – the animated history’ is a combination of science, education, and digital art. It is focused on the past climate changes and their striking impact on the massive Greenland Ice Sheet, in particular the historical melting event around 12.000 years ago. We illustrate the power of Greenland’s nature and how the ice can shape the landscape on a time scale of millennia.

Our science story is framed in a video game-like scene showing science knowledge on climate change and associated ice sheet melting in the form of a futuristic digital novel. This science-art endeavor brings together decades of research carried out by international teams projected onto satellite images and digital drawings as the universal, easy-going form of communicating science.

Watch the animation in YouTube here: https://youtu.be/7lay77hw9bk