Will melting the ice caps really raise water levels?

Question

Because if you think about it, most polar ice is actually floating on water, and if ice displaces more liquid than it actually holds even when floating. So surely the water level would actually remain the same?

Think about it. You have a glass of water with ice in it. When the ice melts the actual level of the water goes down.

Yes, BUT wouldn't it simply counteract the lowered water levels which happened as a result of the floating ice melting? So surely the only raise in water levels will be due to the sea water actually expanding because of the increase in temperature?

Actually due to the expansion of water when it freezes due to crystalization, ice is an exception to Archimides Principle.

Well most of the arctic is floating, so doesn't the volume of floating ice roughly equal the volume of continental ice?

So I take it that there is more continental ice than floating ice? Because I know that Antartica is virtually entirely continental, but the Arctic is virtually entirely floating, in fact the entire arctic circle, bar a tiny bit of Greenland, Canada and some islands such as Svalbard, is actually floating ice.

How much drinking water comes from polar ice caps? I mean really! What sort of a flipping answer is we'll all die of thirst? THINK, MAN, THINK!

Answer 1

Are you sure that most ice is floating on the water? Think antartica. When the ice on mountaintops melt, you can certainly tell the difference in rivers downstream. Nevertheless, I like the thinking behind your question. It is easy to just assume something when you are told and , if that information is faulty, it can ruin the effect of a larger argument in a debate.

Answer 2

Yes, the level of water will rise, because all the ice of the polar caps is not floating. If it was floating, then what you assumed is right, just like a few ice cubes floating in a galss of water will not cause the water level to rise on melting. But, here the situation is different. And for rise in temp, a few degrees is enough which is happening owing to increasing concentration of CO2 and hydrocarbons. And this does not require millions of years.

Answer 3

If it is an ice burg in the ocean it might melt in very hot temptures between 100 and 120 and more. Well it won't excatley raise the ocean sea level because the ocean is way much to big. But it will make the area where the ice burg was, deeper.
If your talking about an ice cube in a cub of water, then yes it will make it deeper and will raise water level. Because the voulme and weight of the ice cube turns in to water and the more water in the cup the higher warter level gets. Also it will be deeper.

Answer 4

Archimedes' Priciple states that ice doesn't displace more liquid than it holds when floating. So if all of the ice in the world were already in the sea, the water level would remain the same as it melts. However, that is not the case; Antarctica is covered in ice, and there are hundreds of glaciers around the earth that are melting.

Answer 5

The question that I would ask is not so much the rise of water as being the problem, hell we can move to the deserts or inland and those that go underwater will just have to relocate, howeverk, if the fresh water supplies melt into the sea what will everyone that moves do for fresh water to drink. Without water to drink our longivity is somewhere around 7 days. Too much water is not the problem fresh water to drink could turn out to be a very real problem with short timelines. How long can you go without water?

Answer 6

Much of the Earth's ice is contained in Antarctica. Since this is a continent that is covered in ice/snow, the ice is not floating on water. Ice melting from Antarctica would add water to the worlds oceans, causing the level to rise (if enough ice were to melt).

Answer 7

Melting of floating ice won't raise water levels. The big fear is that continental ice, either on Greenland, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, or both, will melt. And that would raise sea levels.

Answer 8

what melts the ice caps is global warming, because of the ozone layer, but what helps the melting is fresh water in the sea, I'll break it down like this: there is a "current" of water, like a vacuum, salt water stays on the bottom, that's cold, then warm fresh water, as there is more fresh water, the surface of the sea is warmer, causing the caps to melt, and long term, can stop the vacuum of the ocean, meaning, the next ice age.

Answer 9

well r u sure about your facts, isn't there a lot more inland ice e.g. Greenland, Antarctica, north-America ? I read in National Geographic that the melting of icecaps would in fact lead to another ice age eventually as major sea currents will stop moving due to high amount of cold water (more dense).

By the way, global warming has nothing to do with the ozone layer being thin. It has to do with emission of CO2 which acts like warm blanket around the planet as it absorbs heat radiated from the earth surface. Bit like an insulator.

The ozone layer (O3) protects us from deadly UV rays, thinner layer attributed to CFC emmisions, ultimately leads to increased occurence of skin cancers, it has nothing to do with global warming.

Answer 10

Yes, because not all polar ice is floating. Sure, some of it is floating, but not all of it. Most of the ice in Greenland and Antarctica is not floating.