A new study in the journal Science says a large portion of Greenland turned to ice-free tundra about 416,000 years ago, plus or minus 38,000 years—quite recent in geologic time.
A rocky landscape near the eastern coast of Greenland, similar to what the interior of the island may have looked like when its massive ice sheet melted away
Fossilised plants and insects extracted from beneath the centre of Greenland provide “smoking gun” evidence that the ice sheet has completely collapsed in the past – and could do so again. The findings, taken from a sediment core drilled 30 years ago, reveal that the island was once an ice-free Arctic tundra complete with insects and plant life.
