Greenland Flashcards
Greenland - key facts
- The world’s largest island
- Located between the arctic and Atlantic oceans- found b/w 60 and 83 degrees latitude North of the Equator
- A neighbor to Canada, Denmark + Norway
- Geologically considered part of North American Continent
- Denmark has sovereignty over the island
- Majority traditional Innuit population
- Primary industry is fishing
Ice Sheet - key facts
- Ice sheet = 1.7 million km squared
- Covers 80% of Greenland
- Peak reaches 3000m above sea level
- Contains 11% of Earths freshwater supply
- Contains 215 glaciers
- 33 million tons of ice melting/yr in 1990 to an average of 234 million tons towards 2018
Impacts of the Melting Ice Sheet - Positive (Economic)
- Wealth of mineral resources – zinc, uranium, gold, copper, sapphires
- Mine given permission to start operations in 2017
- Land available for farming increasing
- Tourism increasing sig 2017-267,000 visitor’s vs 1994 -114,000 visitors
- Sand deposited – exporting job opp.
- Northwest Passage opening – tourism and more exports + imports
Impacts of the Melting Ice Sheet - Negative (Economic)
-90% of Greenhouse export income comes from fishing h/w expensive as equipment needs to be bought. Infrastructure built and people need to be trained in new jobs
-flash flooding causing damage to infrastructure – decreased profit
- new health problems as a result of industrialization
Impacts of the Melting Ice Sheet - Positive (socio-Cultural)
- farming industry growth + tourism industry = more job opp.
- increasing tourists in a region
- warm weather = more enjoyable
- Archeological relics being uncovered
- more land for ecotourism
- economic ind. – can have full independence from Denmark
Impacts of the Melting Ice Sheet - Negative (socio-Cultural)
-increased depression + suicide rates due to loss of culture
-traditional ways of life are challenged – hunters giving up dog teams to hunt b/c decreased opp. to hunt in sea ice
- moving to fishing ind
- people require training in new jobs
- melting of permafrost beneath towns is causing damages to houses + buildings e.g. sinking
-Endanger coastal cities
- melting – inundate islands like Tuvalu + Maldives with sea level rise
- snowfall freeze leaves towns stranded for longer
Impacts of the Melting Ice Sheet - Positive (Environmental)
-Mineral rich soil – good for mining + farming
- fish species migrating further north
-Growing season expanded as climate has warmed
-delivers nutrients into lakes and rivers
Impacts of the Melting Ice Sheet - Negative (Environmental)
-loss of glaciers
- sea ice form and melting later
-droughts + wild fires – big issue for farmers
- fluctuations in climate
- increased storm surges/flash flooding
-animals native and prone to extinction by the end of the century
-coastal erosion + waves larger b/c x big chunks of ice to stop them
Cryosat 2 - Background Info
- Satellite launched in April 2010 to provide scientists with data about the polar ice caps and tracks changes in the thickness of ice with a resolution of about 1.3cm
- Built as a replacement for cryostat 1 which had been unable to achieve orbit
Cryosat 2 - How Does it Work
- recently put into orbit with a higher resolution radar altimeter (increased no. of pixels contained on display monitor)
- Uses complicated radar combination techniques (radar interferometry) to enhance the radar’s horizontal resolution to 250m
Cryosat 2 - Advantages
- Allows for precise measurements of changes, as small as a few cm
- It will allow for the highest latitude coverage available for an altimeter
- Altimeter is extremely accurate and has a higher resolution then even the new radar altimeters
- measures changes in ice thickness to an accuracy of about 10% of the expected interannual variation which is b/w 0.7-3cm /yr depending on where on the ice sheet it is
Disadvantages
can be affected by cloud cover
Results found by Cryosat 2
- the greater rate of ice loss has occurred close to the coast at the margins of the ice sheet particularly in the west, south-east and north-east of the country
- showed that meltwater from Greenland doubled b/w 2009 and 2014 as a result of melting ice
Local Response- Illulissat Hydropwer - Background Info
- Organisation responsible for implementing – Tucon – tunneling, Istak=contractor which selected Asea Brown Bover-ABB (to provide the technology) – Nukissiorfiit is the energy provider
- Construction period = Aug 2010- July 2013
- Completed September 6th, 2013, completed
- Location Ilulissat, West Coast of Greenland (Disco Bay) 45km NE from town of Ilulissat
- Replace diesel power plants with hydropower, a renewable, green form of energy
- Aim = reduce community dependence on fossil fuels + move to renewable energy
- Uses meltwater from glaciers to generate electricity
Ilulissat Hydropower - main features for implementation
- The plant utilises glacial meltwater from two glacial lakes, water is diverted through diversion tunnels to an underground powerhouse where hydropower technology is used to convert the meltwater into energy. Cost – 180 million AUD
