Freeze! Shrinking ‘king of glaciers’ is growing again

A HUGE glacier thought to be shrinking from climate change has started growing again, Nasa scientists have found.

The Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland was retreating by 1.8 miles and thinning by nearly 130 feet annually seven years ago.

But after being in retreat for 20 years, it has started growing again at about the same rate over the past two years, according to the Oceans Melting Greenland project.

Jakobshavn has been dubbed the ‘king of glaciers’ by scientists as it discharges the most ice in the northern hemisphere. It is thought likely to have produced the iceberg which sunk the Titanic.

Study lead author Ala Khazendar, a Nasa glaciologist on the project, said a natural cyclical cooling of the water where Jakobshavn hits the North Atlantic probably caused it to increase in size.

Co-author Josh Willis, a Nasa climate scientist, said the study shows that ocean temperature is a bigger factor in glacier changes than previously thought.

However, authors of the research in the journal Nature Geoscience and other scientists believe the reversal may just be temporary and that overall the Greenland ice sheet is still in decline.

University of Washington ice scientist Ian Joughin said it would be a ‘grave mistake’ to interpret the data as contradicting climate change as it was a ‘temporary blip’.