Greenland Has a Mysterious 'Dark Zone' — And It's Getting Even Darker

In the summer months, the western margin is shaded by a dark zone that seems to have gotten darker in recent years, threatening to speed up the rate of melting.A new study offers an explanation for the phenomenon, putting the blame on impurities like carbon and ice-dwelling algae."What we show is that the dark zone is covered in a finely distributed layer of dust and black carbon, which provide nutrition for dark-colored algae," study co-author Alun Hubbard, a professor at Norway's Centre for Ar