Tipping Point for Coastal Glaciers

A study published in Nature Communications finds that the peripheral glaciers of Greenland started to lose the capacity to refreeze meltwater sometime around 1997. The accelerated melting of coastal ice could spread to the inland ice sheet.

Global warming ... is a clear culprit of this precipitous decline: Higher temperatures have meant not just more meltwater production, but also less firn accumulating every year to absorb the meltwater.