I’ve been hearing a lot about this lately. Intuitively I would have thought sea levels to decrease when ice caps melt?
In: Physics
Because the ice on greenland isn’t in sea.
If you take a glass of water, and put a funnel or strain above it with ice in it, the water from the melting ice will increase the water level of the glass below it.
Most of the ice we’re worried about isn’t floating in the ocean yet, so when it melts it will run into the ocean and raise sea levels.
The ice is above water, either floating or attached to land. So it’s adding water back into the ocean when it melts.
I guess it would be because a large part of the ice is sitting above sea level so if it were to melt it would form part of the sea and ultimately rise it over all. Not an expert..
Greenland is also about 1.790 meters or 5.800 feet above sea level, that’s a whole lot of ice we are talking about.
The biggest problem is the glaciers and ice that are on land, melting and then that water going into the ocean
Water level only drops if the ice were held underwater. That’s the only condition where the decreased melt volume matters. Floating ice does not affect water level at all. Ice resting on land adds to the water level as it melts.
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