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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums12 billion tons of water
12 billion tons of water melted off of Greenland (EDIT) in one day last month.
Just to melt that water, not to get it up to temperature but just to change its state to liquid, required 4 exajoules of energy. I put that in bold because "exa-" is a prefix people don't get to use much. 4 * 10^18.
The flux capacitor from Back to the Future supposedly ran at 1.21 gigawatts, because that was a ludicrous power draw in the 1980s. 4 exajoules would power it for over a century.
4 exajoules is about 1000 Megatons of TNT, or roughly 20 Tsar Bombas. That's 2000 times the US total power production in the month.
Delphinus
(11,840 posts)almost impossible to put this into terms that most folks can comprehend.
Response to Recursion (Original post)
sl8 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Triloon
(506 posts)occurred on one day, last Wednesday I think it was.
"More than 11 billion U.S. tons of ice was lost to the oceans by surface melt on Wednesday alone, creating a net mass ice loss of some 217 billion U.S. tons from Greenland in July"
[link:https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2019/0802/Greenland-ice-melt-to-increase-as-heat-wave-continues|
The numbers are boggling. The enormous scale of the problem is what is so difficult for people to grasp I think.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)12 billion tons in one day (weight doesn't change on melting so it's also 12 billion tons of water) requires 4 exajoules at a constant temperature.
Triloon
(506 posts)It is hair-raising.
panader0
(25,816 posts)12 billion times 2000 divided by 8 (lbs per gallon).
In 24 hours. How much is that?
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212339344
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Way too many mixed units here, but the order of magnitude is the point.
panader0
(25,816 posts)Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,870 posts)It will also play havoc with the weather .