However, sea level rise was probably not the only reason the Vikings left Greenland. This flooding would have submerged land that the Vikings used for farming and as grazing pastures for their cattle, according to the models. Their models showed that from about 1000 to 1400, rising seas around Greenland would have flooded Viking settlements by as much as 16 feet (5 meters), affecting about 54 square miles (140 square kilometers) of coastal land, Borreggine said.

Photos: 10th-century Viking tomb unearthed in Denmark

Photos: Viking warrior is actually a woman Images: Viking-age jewelry revealed in sparkling photos 15) at the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), held this week in New Orleans and online. Now, new findings show that rising seas played a key role, by submerging miles of coastline, according to data presented Wednesday (Dec. Researchers previously suggested that factors such as climate change and economic shifts likely led the Vikings to abandon Greenland. (At the time of the Vikings' arrival, Greenland was already inhabited by people of the Dorset Culture, an Indigenous group that preceded the arrival of the Inuit people in the Arctic, according to the University of California Riverside).Īround the 15th century, signs of Norse habitation in the region vanished from the archaeological record. Other Viking settlers soon followed, forming communities in Eystribyggð (Eastern Settlement) and Vestribyggð (Western Settlement) that thrived for centuries. 985 with the arrival of Erik Thorvaldsson, also known as 'Erik the Red,' a Norwegian-born explorer who sailed to Greenland after being exiled from Iceland.

The Vikings first established a foothold in southern Greenland around A.D.

The mighty vikings