Will the water level rise if the ice melt's?

Question

I done my own experiment at home with a glass of water. I placed a handful of ice cube's into a pint pot half full of water, and marked the level. When all the ice had melted, the level was the same?
Why are, or Who are trying to scare the common man?

Answer 1

Your ice cube bears no resemblence what so ever to the polar caps.... to cut a long story short..if they melt, we're screwed...

Answer 2

Your question is fatuous, some earlier answers are as well. Yes the water level will rise. The Artic Pole is sea based, so yes, there will be no change in sea level if it melts, perhaps a slight reduction, however most of the great ice caps are on land and therefore when they melt the sea level level will rise. Have you never heard of the land bridge that existed between the UK and Europe during the last Ice Age, come to that matter the one that existed between Alaska and the former USSR. These are now under water, sea to you and me. Got the idea, high temperatures, ice melts, land masses are flooded. Hope you, or your progeny don't live below 50 metres above sea level.

Answer 3

For the most part, it wouldn't. If someone told you it would they were misinformed. You are exactly correct. There may be some ice being held up by landmass in Antarctica and that would be the only difference. Other than that, ice becomes 10% more voluminous when frozen so any horror stories you heard about global warming flooding the world is a load of crap. The water levels would not rise a single inch. (It would rise however. but because of the enormity of the ocean, it would be less than an inch)

Answer 4

Are you talking about global warming? The ice in Antarctica and Greenland is mostly 99% resting on rock -- not on the ocean.

Try your experiment this way: put a rock in the pot, so that the top of the rock is above the water. Put the ice cubes on the rock. Mark the level of the liquid water. Wait for the ice to melt, then mark the new level of the water.

Answer 5

You're right, melting the ice floating on the ocean does not change the sea level.

What changes the sea level is melting the glaciers on the land, specifically the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps.

The Antarctic ice cap has millions of cubic miles of ice.
With global warming, it may not melt right away because right now most of Antarctica is "too cold to snow", and warming it up will increase the rate of snow deposition. Eventually, however, it will melt. The periods in the Earth's history where the CO2 levels were substantially higher than they are now, Antarctica was a rain forest and Kansas was under a shallow sea.

P.S. It is silly to disbelieve in sea level rise---even without man-made global warming, the oceans have been rising about a foot per century for the last 30,000 years or so, and the oceans have risen 300 feet since the migration of modern man out of Africa. There are remains of stone-age human settlements under hundreds of feet of water.

Answer 6

you forgot one mayor detail in you experiment ,
the ice in the north pole is all in the sea (there is no land )and your icecube argument holds true.

the ice on the glaziers,mountain tops ,Greenland,and Antarctica is all ice that is on the LAND that now ends up into the sea ,either via the rivers or directly.
In Antarctica huge arms of ice ,that even had names (they had been there so long)have melted and slid into the sea ,

collectively this is a huge amount of water ,not only that it was sweet water
75%of all sweet water was locked in the ice all over the world ,Now it looks like it will all end up into the salt water ,and be lost as a source for drinkable water ,via precipitation or directly by people towing it away .or carying it ,as was already done in the middle Ages.

ignorence is bliss as you point out unwittingly.

what is far more scary is that so many people are ignorent,blissfully unaware of the extent of the disastres that we are facing

if any thing the environmentalist s and the Governments play things down ,for political reasons and because they dont want to panic humanity

what you considder scaring the common man, is only a fraction of the truth ,with holding information to stop the common man from blaming the Governments

Answer 7

Funny how that works, eh? A lot of people will disagree - those who follow the herd mentality - but to a thinking person with some knowledge of climate and meteorology, very little of this sky-is-falling crap adds up. The non-thinkers will just jump on the Al Gore band wagon and follow the farce blindly. Here are some of my questions about all of this:
1) The poles are without sunshine half (more or less) of the year and with snow and ice cover there is no black body to absorb heat. So where is this heat coming from to melt the ice pack?

2) Some might say the ocean currents are causing the ice to melt but wouldn't the combined temperature of the water and air would have to average more than 32 degrees (F) for a sustained period of time for that to happen?

3) Since the earth is mostly covered by water, and considering your experiment, any melted ice that would raise the sea level would have to come from glaciers. Again, the temp would have to exceed the freezing point for a long time to cause them to melt. Who really believes this is happening when you consider the seasons, the sun lit hours of the day, and the location of these glaciers? Remember now, glaciers aren't static - they move - so some are naturally going to end up in the ocean no matter what. Mendenhall comes to mind.

The government(s) have always manipulated the people to serve their own purposes. This is just another example. The number of scientists (and there are many) who have debunked the whole global warming debacle are seldom ever heard from. Doesn't anyone find this strange?

P.S. Cosmo's "theories" don't account for plate tectonics or subduction and uplift. "Too cold to snow" is another fallacy. How the heck did it get there in the first place - over simplifying here.

Answer 8

The problem with your experiment is that it doesn't match the actual situation. Almost all the ice in the polar regions isn't already inthe water--as your ice cubes is. Its contained in glaciers and icecaps--and they are on land, not in the ocean. If that ice melts, it will flow into the oceans, raising the water level.

Here's how you could set up your experiment to mirror the actual situation: Take a glass or bottlle with some ater in it, and put a funnel on top. Then put the ice cubes in the funnel so melted ice (water) can flow into the glass. After the ice melts, you'll see the water level has risen.

Answer 9

Yes the volume of ice (water) is equal to more than that of liquid water, but the ice on the antarctic continent sits on land hence it being a continent but this also means that the ice (water) is not effecting the volume of the ocean. Also the glaciers on top of mountains and other places will also melt and be added to the sea level so it will rise small amounts but enough to have an effect on many lives.

Answer 10

A large amount of greenland, which is land covered by ice, is melting, as is happening in the south pole which is also land covered by ice. This water will enter the sea. The sea level will rise.

Get you experiment again and add some more ice cubes after you've marked the level. Notice that the water level rides now?

Answer 11

You are correct in pointing out that ice resting in the water will not change the water level when it melts, and your experiment shows why that it true.

But, what happens when the ice is not in the water, but is instead on top of a shelf of land, like in Greenland? When that ice melts, it runs off into the ocean and does raise the ocean level.