Greenland's ice sheet currently spans over 1.7 million square kilometers and is the largest freshwater reservoir in the northern hemisphere. The ice sheet has already lost over a trillion tonnes of its total mass since the 1980s,

Pigmented algae are well adapted to grow on exposed ice in the Arctic as the snowline recedes, raising concerns of a feedback loop that could lead to faster sea-level rise

By Alimat Aliyeva The Greenland Ice Sheet, the largest freshwater reservoir in the Northern Hemisphere, is losing mass

Glaciers are huge white ice masses that can reflect a lot of sunlight. However, especially where the glaciers are not covered in snow and the bare ice is exposed, they sometimes have dark patches. These are microscopic algae that grow on the ice and darken its surface.