What will happen to the earth if antartica melt by global warming?

Answer 1

The possibility of that happening is a long, long time off.

Antarctica is a vast area, one and a half times the size of the US. The ice averages 2000 metres thick, and all told weighs a staggering 30 quadrillion tons. To melt this is going to require a) some serious global warming and b) a very long time.

However, if it did melt, and it has done so in the past, then sea levels globally would rise by 73.42 metres (240 feet).

Antractica is generally divided into three - the East and Wast ice sheets and the Peninsular.

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet contains 26 million cubic km of ice and if it melted would raise sea levels by 64.90 metres. The West Antractic Ice Sheet is much smaller and contains a little over 3 million cubic kilometres if ice, enough to raise sea levels by 8.06 metres were it to melt. Finally the Peninsular, this 'arm' juts out into the sea and is small by cpmarison to the rest of Antarctica containing 227,000 cubic km of ice, which would raise sea levels by 0.46 metres were it to melt.

In short, all land below the 80 metre (240 foot) contour would be submerged. However, for the Antarctic ice to melt would require considerably higher temperatures and these would lead to thermal expansion of the oceans. Extrapolating by using the present sea level ratios between metwater runoff and thermal expansion means that when thermal expansion is taken into account, global sea levels would rise by 155 metres (500 feet).

You can use Google Earth to highlight all areas of the planet below a certain altitude. If sea levels were to rise by 80 or 155 metres the coastlines of many countries would be very differnt indeed and all told tens of millions of square kilometres of land would be lost.

Answer 2

The sea level will rise.

If Antartica melts then all the other ice on the planet will melt as well.

The gulf stream will "switch off" because the salinity of the water will be reduced. Northern Europe will get a lot colder and become a much more difficult a place to live.

Cities that are near the ocean or river deltas will flood (that's most of them) and many people will try and move to better land. Consequently there will be an increase in immigration and the pressure on resources will increase.

The weather will change - probably for the worst.

Sounds bad doesn't it?

Answer 3

If the entire West Antartic ice sheet and East Antartic ice sheet actually totally collapsed into the sea and melted, sea levels world wide would rise around 600 feet.

Whole countries would be inundated with water. Those lucky enough to have a high enough elevation would still lose all of their coastal cities.

The billions of refugees fleeing into inland countries would create absolute chaos and havoc across the world. Wars would break out, genocides would become common place.

The flood of refugees and the loss of coastal cities would lead to a total collapse in the global economy.

The loss of the massive ice sheets on Antartica which currently have a big impact on the world's weather would likely only increase the climate chaos that melted them in the first place. Ocean currents and wind patterns would change. The entire global ocean ecosystem would collapse.

In effect, this would cause the collapse of human civilization and probably the 6th mass extinction event for the world's animals.

It is very unlikely either ice sheet on Antartic is going to face total structural collapse anytime within the next hundred years, but if we keep warming the climate it will eventually happen, and since we're doing a bad job at predicting the current changes in the climate, there's always the possibility the climate could begin to change even more rapidly, catching us off guard, and even melting the ice sheets alot sooner than the hundreds of years originally predicted.

Answer 4

As Antartica is not like the North Pole that is it is not simply ice on water but ice on land, definitely the sea level will rise when the ice melts. Flat islands/archipelagos(example:Maldives) will we covered with water, coastal regions in other countries too. A lot of people will die. There will surely be some effect on the living organisms in the water.

Answer 5

The sea level would rise by 90 metres. Most of the land surface would still be there, but because settlements tend to be built near bodies of water, many of them would be destroyed. However, there would be other effects from the loss of salinity in the ocean and the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which would increase the acidity of water in general and lead to many hard parts of animals dissolving. This would disrupt food chains and cause mass extinction. For this to happen, there would have to be a really extreme rise in global temperature, which is quite unlikely.

Answer 6

What Happens If Antarctica Melts

Answer 7

Its just a big cycle mate. In a couple of million years it doesnt matter what we do, the planet will be so overpopulated and causing so much damage to the planet that we will have another ice age/mass drought whatever - we will all die off..... few million years later, it all starts again. We really are so naive to believe that we have ultimate control over the earths future. OK we might kill half of it ourselves with a neuclear war or whatever but mother nature always finds a way to kill everything off and start again. Life finds a way.....

Answer 8

well if the ice melts than the sea level will rise.and if you learned this in science class the earth used to be covered in water.so if the sea level rises the earth will be like the time when the earth was 100% covered with water.but to cover the earth with water, greenland and other places with glaciers would have to melt.not just antartica.i hope this covers what you were asking.

Answer 9

Go buy a property up a hill where the advancing waves cannot reach you. However there is an alternative pioneered by a guy called Noah. Want to borrow my saw?

Answer 10

Land will be covered by water. This concerns me because what are we supposed to do about the major cities with millions of people in them that are on the coasts?!?