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
When thinking about sea level rise, besides the ice that sits in continental masses (outside the ocean), you also need to consider the thermal expansion of water.
[According to NASA about half of the sea level increase so far comes from thermal expansion.](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-warming-water-causes-sea-level-rise/)
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