More than 28,700 square kilometers or 1.6% of Greenland’s ice sheet and glaciers are estimated to have melted over the past three decades, giving way to rocks, wetlands and scrub, according to a major analysis of historical satellite records.

Greenland, part of the Arctic, is the largest island in the world, with an area of ​​about 2.1 million square kilometers. Most of it is covered by ice and glaciers and is home to almost 57,000 people.

Since the 1970s the region has warmed at twice the global average.

A team of scientists from the University of Leeds, who tracked changes across Greenland from the 1980s to the 2010s, found that ice loss is concentrated around the edges of today’s glaciers, but also in the north and south-west of Greenland .

Plot comparing land cover in the late 1980s and late 2010s, revealing the expansion of plant cover, especially in the southwest and northeast

There are also high levels of ice loss in localized areas in the west, mid-northwest and southeast.

Scientists report that warmer air temperatures are causing the ice to retreat, which in turn causes further warming and has an impact on both greenhouse gas emissions and landscape stability.

The research is published in the journal “Scientific Reports”.