why does the snow-caps melting mean the earth's water level rises...?

Question

if you have an ice cube in a glass of water and measure the level, then measure the level again when the ice has melted it will be the same level, so what's so special about the ice-caps?

Answer 1

its not just the ice.the water is darker now from pollution causing the water to heat and expand.this will cause water levels to rise.


as for the ice,some of it is above sea level.and sinse salt don't freeze,its all fresh water melting.

Answer 2

Super and important question given the global warming situation.

When ice floating in water melts, the water level does not rise. But when ice outside the water melts and runs into nearby water, the water rises. The glaciers and ice caps are over ground; so when they melt and their resulting water runs into an ocean, the ocean level, all things equal, has to rise. I say all things equal because there are offsetting phenomena (like evaporation) that could offset a single instance of melted water running into the ocean.

When a glacier breaks off as a solid chunk of ice into the ocean, the ocean rises too. A new volume of water (solid water) has been added to the ocean; so the water level has to go up. But when that chunk of ice in the ocean melts, there is no more rise in the water level from that melt because the ocean already accounted for the additional mass of water when it rose for the broken off glacier.

You can do a cool (pun intended) experiment to show this. Fill a glass with water half way up the glass. Put one ice cube in it so it is floating on the water. Mark the water level with a marker pen. Let the ice cube melt over time. Note the water level when the cube is all gone. The water level will be about the same height as it was before the cube melted. This is an example of the iceberg melting in the ocean.

Now repeat the experiment, but this time stack up multiple ice cubes in the water so that at least one of the cubes is sticking up out of the water. This exposed ice cube is your ice cap. Let them all melt; then note the water level (actually, if you don't watch out, the water will spill over the edges of your glass; so you best do this where a little water won't hurt).

Answer 3

The ice that people are worried about is that, that is on Antartica. Antarctica is a land mass covered in Ice, so when the ice melts, the water will run into the ocean and be added to what is already there. The ice cap in the Arctic is just on the sea, so when it melts, as you say, the difference will not be so great. There will be some increase, however, because remember that not all of the ice is below sea level, so when it melts, ice above the sea level will be added to the sea level.
The melting of the southern ice cap, may not be as critical as some people think, however, because as the ice melts, a great weight is lifted off the earths crust. Because the earths crust is infact flexible, the crust will raise a little, and therefore emerge above the sea level. This emergence will also reduce the sea level across the globe slightly as there will be less crust in the sea if this happens.
It's all to do with Isostasy really.

Answer 4

Due to the fact that the ice caps are above water and they melt down into the water, also in your glass of water with an ice cube, there are no high and low tides, that also plays a factor in the rising levels after an ice cap melts.

Answer 5

Ice caps are vast volumes of water locked in the solid phase on land. When these melt the runoff will add significantly to the volume of liquid water and the sea level will rise. It will not drown the continents, but will drown the many coastal regions around the continents where human populations congregate for farming, trading and habitation.
Ice caps are white and reflect light back into space. Melted, and rock or deep water is exposed - this being darker, it will absorb heat increasing local climate temps.
On the other hand, all this exposed rock will be weathered, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, causing global cooling, and an icebox effect. Usher in the next ice age!

Answer 6

Your comparison is incorrect. Try this, Fill a glass of water to the brim then add an ice cube or more water and you will find that you have a puddle. The reason that the the seas Will rise is because the antarctic ice cap and glaciers are not 'IN' the water. The arctic cap would not have as much as an effect because it IS on the water for the most part....like an ice cube in a glass of water.

Answer 7

This is a Rush Limbaugh argument, and it holds no water, pun intended.

The majority of ice in the world is not floating on the polar caps... it is landlocked. The ise of Antarctica, glaciers everywhere, high altitude snow, is not part of the initial mass of the ocean. It is the melting of these waters, then running into the ocean, that will cause a significant rise in sea level. The other factor, that warm water expands, is a minimal effect compared to the release of landbound ice.

Answer 8

Greenland and Antarctica are land masses covered with ice, and so melting ice from these areas would directly contribute to rising sea levels.

A small rise in global sea levels would result in a huge impact on coastal areas (think about south east England and the Netherlands, for example).

Note for Super Scientist (above): -

"This means that the volume of liquid is bigger than the volume of the solid (or ice cube)".

Water is an exception to the rule that when solids melt they expand. Water expands when it freezes. This is why water pipes sometimes burst in winter.

Answer 9

Because ice caps are above the water when they melt they run down into the water which gives it more water then it had before the ice caps melted which mean that the earths water level will have risen

Answer 10

The above-water below-water stuff is nonsense. And as you originally indicated, melting ice floating in a glass does not change the water level in the glass.

Floating ice that melts does not increase the sea level as it is already displacing water equal to its own mass and continues to do so after melting. However, land-based ice that melts will increase the sea level, as it was not displacing its own mass of water previously.

Answer 11

Floating water melting makes no difference to sea level since even as ice it displaces its own volume of water (Archimedes). The water produced by melting from land masses is simply going to produce more water and therefore he level rises.