Doesn't the ice in the water, which is now melting due to global warming, displace an equal amount of water frozen as in melted liquid form? What is causing the sea level to rise so rapidly?
2006-12-30 15:42:10 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
Melting ice that is sitting on land.
2006-12-30 20:20:23 · answer #1 · answered by Bob 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the glaciers on the land melt into the ocean the level will rise. I have read that when 60% of the land ice on Greenland and Canada has melted, there will be a dramatic rise in the sea level. Surf the web with key words glacier melt and sea level rise. Check the images and you will see maps of possible results of sea level rise. If you check the web site global flooding you will see some disturbing maps for 60 meter and 100 meter rises. Hopefully this will not happen!
2006-12-30 17:36:54 · answer #2 · answered by anybody 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are two effects. First, as the water that is in the oceans warms up, it expands. Second, warming causes ice stored on land to run downhill onto the ocean, either by melting into rivers or by glaciers sliding without melting. This is the opposite of what caused sea level to fall during ice ages. You are correct that the melting of floating ice doesn't directly matter.
2006-12-30 16:09:17 · answer #3 · answered by virtualguy92107 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Apart from the seas and oceans the greatest masses of water on the planet are locked in the Arctic and Antarctic Ice Caps. These sheets of ice cover hundreds of thousands of square miles and in places are several miles thick. As the global temperature rises it's the edges and surfaces of the ice caps that melt and the melt-water runs off into the surrounding seas and oceans and causes the levels to rise.
2006-12-30 15:52:17 · answer #4 · answered by Trevor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
EVEN THOUGH THERE HAS BEEN VERY MUCH MELTING GOING ON ---THE SEA REALLY HASN'T RISEN MUCH ---BUT NASA HAS 2 SATELITES THAT MEASURE EVERY INCH OF THE PLANET --ABLE TO TELL EXACTLY HOW HIGH OR LOW THE SURFACE IS BOTH ON WATER & ON LAND....A STRANGE THING WAS RECORDED ABOUT 3-4 YRS. AGO...STRAIGHT OUT FROM PERU ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN FOR HUNDREDS OF MILES OUT & HUNDREDS OF MILES WIDE THE WATER SURFACE IS 7 TO 10 FEET ABOVE NORMAL SEA LEVEL GOING UP OR DOWN AT THE EDGES TAPERED SO AS NOT TO BE PERCIEVED WHEN SAILING.....ESTIMATES ARE THAT QUADRILLIONS OF TONS OF WATER ARE SOMEHOW BEING HELD IN SUSPENSION--WHICH IF RELEASED WOULD RAISE SEA LEVEL MANY FEET....NO EXPLANATION OR PAST REASONING WAS GIVEN OR UNDERSTOOD FOR THIS HAPPENING......PERSONALLY I WONDER IF IT COULD BE GOD HOLDING THE DELUGE AT BAY LIKE THE SWORD OF DAMICLES..ADDING TO THE MASS CONSTANTLY BY MELTING ICE CAPS & MT. TOPS WHICH IS A MATTER OF FACT KNOWN BY SCIENTIST THE WORLD OVER..I NEVER BELIEVED GLOBAL WARMING WAS REAL- UNTIL THIS NASA FINDING.....PLUS THE REPORTING OF MANY ICE RUPTURES NEVER BEFORE SEEN BY SCIENTISTS.......
2006-12-30 17:07:10 · answer #5 · answered by Dave F 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes....the polar ice caps are melting and raising the sea level. The polar ice reflects the suns heat upward into space. Now that the ice caps are melting the heat is being absorbed into our planet and heating it up at a increasingly fast pace.
2006-12-30 15:50:28 · answer #6 · answered by eva diane 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Floating ice melting will not change sea level at all. Ice on land that melts will raise sea level. Ice at the south pole is not floating. The sea level WILL NOT DROP because some of the VOLUME of floating ice is HELD ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE SEA. FLOATING ICE MELTING EQUALS NO LEVEL CHANGE.
2016-05-22 22:46:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the shore ice will melt, but recently scientists in the Antarctic discovered that the sea ice held the land ice up on the shore and higher...I'm talking glaciers very thick...if these glaciers start to slide on the water pooling at their base...another thing they discovered very recently is that the ice is becoming very honeycombed and the water passes thru the ice and pools at the ground--and they will begin to slide and break up into the sea...on Ellsmere Island in, near Baffin Island in the Artic, another huge piece of sea ice broke away from the shore...with land ice above it...it may happen fairly quickly
2006-12-30 19:28:39 · answer #8 · answered by Ford Prefect 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While ice in icebergs and sea ice is floating, the ice in glaciers and other ice sheets is on land in Antarctica and in mountains will be added to the oceans as it melts and reaches the sea.
2006-12-30 15:48:43 · answer #9 · answered by Mike1942f 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
alot of the ice is above sea level. when it melts it obviously goes into the sea causing the sea level to rise.
2006-12-30 15:47:08 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋