Found greenery under the ice of Greenland - the island was not always cold

Scientists from the University of Vermont (USA) found that Greenland completely melted during the natural warming on Earth about 416,000 years ago. And then this led to a rise in global sea levels of at least two meters, which today would mean the flooding of all coastal cities in the world. Study this was published in the journal Science.

Geologists came to this conclusion after studying core, extracted from a depth of 1390 meters in northwestern Greenland. In the sample, beryllium and aluminum isotopes were found, as well as moss with leaves, which greatly surprised scientists. This is irrefutable evidence of a once-ice-free landscape, possibly covered by an ancient forest where woolly mammoths roamed.

Thanks to technology fluorescent dating managed to establish how long the rocks lay on the open surface - about 14,000 years. That is, for about so long this region did not look like a giant glacier.

The results disprove a long-held theory that the world's largest island has remained in permafrost for the past 2.5 million years. Scientists now believe that the Greenland ice sheet, which is up to 1.6 kilometers thick in some places, is more sensitive to anthropogenic climate change than previously thought. This means that in the coming centuries it will inevitably melt, leading to a sea level rise of 1.5-6 meters.