The vast ice sheet of Greenland, which holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 7.2 metres, underwent a remarkable transformation for a few days this month when scientists observed an unprecedented melting of its frozen surface.
For the first time since satellites began recording changes to Greenland from space more than 30 years ago, scientists observed surface melting across almost the entire ice sheet – the second largest body of ice after Antarctica.
At this time of the year, about half of the surface of the ice sheet usually experiences some kind of surface melting as summer day-time temperatures rise above freezing point.
However, scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) were amazed to discover that on 11 and 12 July surface melting had extended across 97 per cent of the ice sheet – the most widespread melting they have witnessed.
Well, my Martian friends have been sending reports since before the First World War, and, believe me, this sort of thing (like Australian droughts) is not unprecedented (and Martian records I believe go back millenia.) Mind you, they may be very good scientists but they can’t fly a bloody aeroplane.