If all of the polar ice caps melted, would all earth's continent's be swallowed by water?

Question

Several of India lsland have been swallowed by rising sea levels and ecologists beleive new york may be next.

Answer 1

The short answer NO!!!!

Bear in mind that 90% of ice is in water only 10% is above water.
Ice being frozen water has expanded approximately 10% by valume over the same volume of water.
So when ice melts it 'shrinks' to 90 % of its frozen volume.This 90% is already submerged in the water so there would be very little change in sea level through just the ice caps melting.

Rising sea levels may be due to other factors such as plate techtonics pushing the plates slightly upwards, thereby rising the sea level. Also the Earth heating up causes everything to expand including water, this may also be a factor. Why is the Earth heating up? The convective currents in the mantle move because of energy. This energy needs to be released in the form of heat, possibly causing the warming up process.
Externally the Sun also has a big influence on the Earth's mechanics.
Water , the oceans, when heating up holds less gas in solution, so carbon dioxide may be released by the oceans giving more CO2 in the atmosphere. This is evidenced by boiling water in a kettle, it bubbles - the release of absorbed gas.

All in all the Earth is a very dynamic and cyclical system, which we do not fully understand all the mechanics involved.

Answer 2

No, granted several lower altitude areas will indeed be covered in water, the higher altitude areas are safe for the most part from the melting of the polar ice caps, it is theorised that while a portion of the polar ice caps will melt, the melted ice will then refreeze, if the polar ice caps were to completely melt the world would not be covered in liquid water as I think it what you are thinking would happen, instead there would be a sudden drop in the temperature of the worlds oceans causing climate temperature to in turn drop and essentially we would have an ice age, it is kind of along the lines of what happened in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" except that it isn't theorised to happen at such a fast pace as to occur over a series of days but instead occur over a more extended period of time.

Answer 3

No. The northern ice cap is mainly floating on water and if it melts it won't raise sea levels at all (think of an ice cube in a glass of water). The ice has already displaced the water by the same amount as it will occupy when liquid.

The southern ice cap sits on a land mass and if and when it melts it will certainly raise sea levels. However this won't be by more than a few metres at the very most. (Our Earth already has a real lot of water).

Answer 4

No.
Earth has been through many of these thawing cycles in its past. Things will cool soon enough and the ice caps will be restored to their former glory of reaching almost to the equator.
If you are worried about drowning, just move away from the coastline.

Here is truth about global warming:

Global warming is one-half of the climatic cycle of warming and cooling.
The earth's mean temperature cycles around the freezing point of water.
This is a completely natural phenomenon which has been going on since there has been water on this planet. It is driven by the sun.
Our planet is currently emerging from a 'mini ice age', so is
becoming warmer and may return to the point at which Greenland is again usable as farmland (as it has been in recorded history).
As the polar ice caps decrease, the amount of fresh water mixing with oceanic water will slow and perhaps stop the thermohaline cycle (the oceanic heat 'conveyor' which, among other things, keeps the U.S. east coast warm).
When this cycle slows/stops, the planet will cool again and begin to enter another ice age.

It's been happening for millions of years.

The worrisome and brutal predictions of drastic climate effects are based on computer models, NOT CLIMATE HISTORY.
As you probably know, computer models are not the most reliable of sources, especially when used to 'predict' chaotic systems such as weather.

Global warming/cooling, AKA 'climate change':
Humans did not cause it.
Humans cannot stop it.

Answer 5

Not even close. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey estimate that If all of the ice sitting on land in Greenland and Antarctica melted it would cause global sea levels to rise by about 215 feet, or about 65 meters.

Fortunately, even the most dire scientific, global warming scenarios do not have all of the ice melting, especially in Antarctica.

There would be the serious loss of coastal cities, serious amounts of farm land.... But this would occur slowly.

Answer 6

no. no where near.

In fact, global warming effect on sea level and how much it will rise will be mainly through expansion of water through raised sea temperature rather than polar ice caps melting.

Answer 7

yes if all the polar ice caps melted it would swallow all the land it would be just like the great flood because all the water that was here the time of the great flood is still here
ice has air in it that is why it floats when it melts the air leaves and this is just water left

Answer 8

no, but lets give it another 50 years or so and we will find out. well i wont, cause i will probably be in the ground. watch an inconvenient truth, it answers most of those questions.

Answer 9

No....some nasty places would be submerged...LA, NYC, Bangladesh, Louisiana and Mississippi, and good old Vietnam....but that's about it....total rise wouldn't be more than 65 meters.

Might be a good idea....gonna buy me another SUV....LOL