Did you catch wind of the amazing event that recently unfolded in East Greenland? In a span of just over two weeks, over 3,000 billion liters of water burst out of an ice-dammed lake, causing quite a buzz among scientists. This rare occurrence was closely observed for the first time, offering valuable insights into the potential devastation that outburst flooding could bring to other parts of the world.
The incident took place between September 23 and October 11 at Catalina Lake in Greenland, a proglacial lake blocked by the massive Edward Bailey Glacier. Over the past twenty years, water had been accumulating in the lake, reaching a critical point that caused the glacier to rise. A 25-kilometer long tunnel was naturally formed beneath the ice, carrying a massive amount of lake water towards Scoresby Sound, the largest fjord in the world. At the same time, water levels at Catalina Lake plummeted by a staggering 154 meters.
This extraordinary event was closely monitored in real-time through satellite imagery by scientists from the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute. Aslak Grinsted, a climate researcher at the institute, likened the energy released by the glacier flood to the output of the world’s largest nuclear power plant running at full capacity for 22 days.
Known as a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), such events can be triggered by various natural causes, including water accumulation, erosion, heavy snow or rain, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Human-induced climate change, resulting from melting glaciers due to rising temperatures, can also play a role in GLOF events.
While the recent flooding in East Greenland posed minimal risk to humans due to the sparsely populated area, there are numerous proglacial lakes worldwide that pose a threat to densely populated regions. A study from 2023 estimated that 15 million people are at risk of deadly glacial floods, particularly in countries like India, Pakistan, Peru, and China.
Looking forward, researchers anticipate witnessing outbursts from even larger ice-dammed lakes as Greenland’s ice sheet continues to shrink. Despite the potential risks, there is a silver lining to these events. The immense energy released by GLOFs has sparked the idea of harnessing them as a source of green energy. The energy released from the Catalina Lake event could have generated 50 megawatts of electricity, sufficient for the needs of a small town.
While there are challenges in building the necessary infrastructure to harness this power in Greenland, the concept of utilizing these outbursts for energy is definitely intriguing. As Grinsted highlights, with the right engineering solutions, there is significant power and energy potential in these natural occurrences.
