The abstract beauty of Greenland
This week on 60 Minutes, Sharyn Alfonsi reports from the top of the world on one of the most significant efforts to study climate change happening today.
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Greenland's harsh and dangerous environment has drawn some of the world's leading climate scientists.
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"Top of the World,"which originally aired on Jan. 31, 2016, and was produced by Daniel Ruetenik, takes a look at how scientists are able to work in such a hostile environment and reports on the discoveries that they've made so far.
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The Oden, pictured here, is Sweden's largest icebreaker and acts as a floating laboratory for scientists.
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60 Minutes traveled to Greenland during August 2015 and experienced the country's "endless days" -- 24 hours of light.
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The rarely seen landscape is both severe and serene.
Humbolt Glacier is pictured here.
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Greenland is the world's largest non-continental island. At three times the size of Texas, 80 percent of it is covered in ice.
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The country now loses more ice than it gains in snowfall every year.
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The Greenland ice sheet, pictured here, and the Antarctic ice sheet contain more than 99 percent of the Earth's freshwater ice.
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If Greenland's ice and snow were to melt completely, global sea level would rise more than 20 feet.
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At present about half of the mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet comes from surface melting and the other half from calving.
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Calving is when chunks of ice break off at the terminus, or end, of a glacier.
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Ice breaks because the forward motion of a glacier makes the terminus unstable. The resulting chunks of ice are "icebergs."
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60 Minutes producer Daniel Ruetenik stands near a road which has collapsed due to glacial melting.
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Petermann Glacier, pictured here, is one of the largest glaciers in the Arctic Circle.
It is located a few hundred miles south of the North Pole.
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Sea ice photographed on the way to Petermann Glacier.
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A glacier near the Petermann Glacier.
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Fjord cliffs, seen here, are created by glacial erosion.
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Nares Strait, pictured here, is a waterway between Greenland and Ellesmere Island.
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An aerial view of Nares Strait.
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Dundas Mountain, Thule Air Force Base.
The Thule Air Force Base is the Department of Defense's most northern base.