OK, I’ve always had trouble with this idea. As far as I’ve ever known, when you drop ice in a glass of water, the ice already displaces an amount of water equal to the amount of water in the ice. So as it melts, it won’t cause the water to suddenly overfull the glass. So what’s different about the polar ice that makes it so that it will raise the sea level if it’s already floating in the sea to begin with?
In: Planetary Science
a large amount of the ice at the poles is supported by ground. either the land under the ice, or the sea bed is shallow enough that the ice reaches that far down. to use your glass analogy. imagine the icecube is so big and the water level so low that the ice doesn’t float.
there’s also issues with changing the density because you’re adding fresh water to salt water.
Latest Answers