Glacial isostatic rebound is the process by which Greenland is growing taller as the global ice sheets melt. The country’s landmass is gradually rising, and Live Science compares it to a “decompressing mattress.” The land’s bedrock starts to grow upward while the weight of the ice sheet gradually decreases, much like it did 11,700 years ago at the end of the last ice age. According to a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the retreat of glaciers is responsible for up to one-third of the uplift of land in some locations.

Lead author Danjal Longfors Berg states, “The maximum land uplift is where you have the most mass loss, and that’s closest to the biggest glaciers in Greenland.” 58 GPS monitors drilled into Greenland’s bedrock in 2007 provided data that he and his allies used to calculate the land’s “vertical motion.” While some of its rise was attributed to natural rebound, ice loss was responsible for 32% and 27.9% of the rebound in two different drainage basins in the east and north, respectively. At the Kangerlussuaq Glacier in southeast Greenland, which has receded 6.2 kilometers since 1900, bedrock was rising at the quickest rate—.3 inches per year.

“When we estimate how much mass it’s losing, then we can give a better estimate of how much the sea level is rising,” Berg adds.Reports indicate that Greenland’s glaciers are melting more quickly than previously thought. According to a recent study that was published in Nature, 20% more ice than previously thought has melted across the country’s glacier margins. “Almost all of Greenland’s glaciers are receding.