Why do people say the ammount of water in the ocean will decrease when the polar ice caps melt? Wont it actually lower. We must remember that water has more volume when it is frozen, so it must also, at the same time displace more water. This means that when it melts, it will take much less space and thus will actually cause the water level to lower..right? Thats what ive been thinking upon..I WILL pick a best answers...so i appreciate your opinion...
2006-08-22 14:17:54 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Ocean Level Will INCREASE. Typo
2006-08-22 14:18:41 · update #1
There is a lot of ice on land, on Antartica, on Greenland, on Artic islands, on top of mountains. If this melt, it will GET in the ocean eventually. Further, an increase in temperature makes the ocean water hotter, and that will dilate, causing an increase in the overall water level.
As for the ice floating on oceans, melting it will have NO effect whatsoever. Ice displaces its own weight, but so does liquid water (!). Floating ice simply reduces the part thereof that is above the surface when it melts. Think about it: iceberg: 1/10 above water, 9/10 under. Water volume of melted iceberg 9/10 of the frozen iceberg. Volume of molten iceberg that is below water level: all of it.
2006-08-22 14:28:37 · answer #1 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most of the polar ice is not in the sea.
You are thinking of sea ice, which is transient and comes and goes with the seasons.
Antarctica is covered in an ice sheet that is up to several miles thick. Antarctica is considerably larger than USA, so there is an awful lot of ice sitting on dry land that is 5 miilion sq miles in extent.
Wanna do the sum: Have to use metric, as it is easy with volumes, especially with water.
Antarctica is 12 million sq kms area
The ice sheet averages 3 km deep
The oceans are 360 million sq kms and also average 3 kms deep.
So, if you spread that ice sheet over the sea (we will assume ice and water have same density - its close anyway for this rough estimate)
If the ocean is 30 times the extent of Antarctica (360 / 12), then Antarctica's frozen water is going to be thinned out 30 times.
Divide the 3km thick ice sheet by 30, and you get 100 meters.
There! If the Antarctic ice sheet melts, the oceans will rise about 100 meters.
Be sure to read my book "Measuring the Universe with Simple Arithmetic" when it is published. It will tell you how to quickly estimate the size and mass of everything from the oceans to the galaxies.
2006-08-22 14:41:20 · answer #2 · answered by nick s 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am from Mars. When the polar ice caps melt, they release CO2 into the atmosphere, silly. They have no effect on the oceans since these are frozen solid year round. I thought everyone knew this.
2006-08-22 14:54:39 · answer #3 · answered by Sciencenut 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
As a familiar liberal, i'm compelled to inform this lie because this is what my puppet masters call for. We could say that the ice caps are shrinking, even even with the undeniable fact that truthfully they're increasing. If we advised the truth, it might make the international warming concept seem undesirable. also, I even ought to say that the polar bears are all useless now too.
2016-12-01 00:56:26 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You apparently don't relaise that the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet are ON LAND. When ice ON LAND melts it turns into water. The water runs into THE OCEANS.
When you add more water to THE OCEANS they ocean level rises.
Do you understand now?
2006-08-22 14:28:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
amount of water will increase when ice cap melts
as water is added to the sea
remember snpw caps are on land they r not actualy in the sea
2006-08-22 14:26:38 · answer #6 · answered by lydia p 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋