A Summer of Arctic Melting Hits Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago

Melt ponds in Svalbard, Norway.

Melt ponds in Svalbard, Norway. NASA

Elevated temperatures in the Arctic, which caused massive melting of the Greenland ice sheet during a three-day period in July, also have touched off rapid glacial melting in Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago.

The island chain — which stretches between 74 and 81 degrees north latitude — experienced glacial melting that was 3.5 times higher than the average melting that occurred on Svalbard from 1981 to 2010. Since the start of summer, an estimated 44 billion tons of meltwater have flowed off Svalbard’s glaciers and into surrounding Arctic seas, according to Xavier Fettweis, a climatologist at Belgium’s University of Liège. At its northernmost point, the Svalbard is roughly 600 miles from the North pole.

This summer’s melting on Svalbard was most severe from July 15 to July 17, the same period when extreme warming swept over Greenland and touched off major melting of the island’s ice sheet.

Meltwater pools on the Greenland ice sheet.

Meltwater pools on the Greenland ice sheet. Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Scientists estimate that during that three-day period, Greenland’s melting ice sheet was pouring 6 billion tons of water a day into the ocean. That’s enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools or cover the entire state of West Virginia in a foot of water. Temperatures in parts of Greenland hovered around 60 degrees F, far higher than the historical average.

Meltwater carves a path through the Greenland ice sheet.

Meltwater carves a path through the Greenland ice sheet. Sean Gallup / Getty Images

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