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Environment

Engineering firms explore plan to slow melting of Greenland glacier

Companies are considering a major geoengineering project that would build a barrier to block warm seawater from reaching the base of Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland

By Rowan Hooper

21 October 2022

Satellite image of Jakobshavn glacier,

Satellite image of Jakobshavn glacier, Greenland, in 2019

NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens/U.S. Geological Survey

Major engineering companies are looking at plans to slow the melting of a gigantic Greenland glacier, in what would be the first large-scale intervention to preserve ice anywhere in the world. If it goes ahead, and if it works, it could suggest a way to slow sea level rise from Antarctic melt, too.

Norway’s Aker Solutions and the Arup Group, based in London, sent representatives to a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 12 October in which proposals were discussed to construct a physical barrier…

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