Sea Shore Antics

[natalie]

1. If all the Arctic Polar Ice Cap was to melt then NO significant sea level

rise would occur.
2. If all the Antarctic Polar Ice Cap was to melt then LOADS of significant sea level rise would occur.

Obvious when pointed

out, but huge numbers of people are emailing with this idea stuck in mind, because they are forgetting basic physics... as you do

1. If all

the Arctic Polar Ice Cap was to melt then NO significant sea level rise would occur.
Key Point: The Arctic polar region

has no land and so the Ice is free floating...
The weight of floating ice = weight of its water when melted (or near enough, so it makes no significant difference to the

overall sea level if it is in frozen form or melted water).

Try This experiment:
Plonk a glass of cold water on a table with an icecube free floating.
Mark the

side of the glass at the water level.
When the ice cube has melted
Look at the mark... it should be around the same level


2. If all the

Antarctic Polar Ice Cap was to melt then LOADS of significant sea level rise would occur.
Key Point: The Antarctic

polar region has land and so the Ice (on the land) is held out of the sea itself...
The weight of land held ice is ADDED to the sea as floating ice, if it crashes off the

land into the sea, or as melted water as it pours from the land into the sea (so it makes a significant difference to the overall sea level as it is being added into the sea

from outside it.. from the land)

Try This experiment:
Plonk a glass of cold water on a table.
Mark the side of the glass at the water level.
Add an

icecube
Look at the mark... it should be above the marked level


Note: Small levels in sea level may change because of the

reasons that the ice caps are melting in the first place ie the waters are warming...
Warm water in itself is a little less dense than cold water, so has a little more

volume (=occupy more space = level rise at the shores). This is a relatively small change in level, but it is NOT to do with the ice melt water itself.

[Steve]

Another point about ice on land relative to sea-changes is:

In areas where ice is on land there is a huge

amount of weight held up. When the ice melts the weight is released. As well as sea-level rise due to ice melt water being added to the sea, where the land rises up due

to being released from the weight load, the sea-level is measured as falling.

Land rising or sinking due to weight loading is known as isostatatics. This is relevant

to sea-level changes because we measure the level from the land!

An example of isostatics in north west Europe (UK) is given in another topic in this forum:


Sea-level changes due to Isostatics (ground rise or sink)
Find from index page or click

here:
http://www.seashoreantics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=80
.

[natalie]

The ice melt in the Arctic is effecting the Polar Bears ability to continue its hunting of its basic food... seal. This is because it can no longer get

around so much as the ice sheet is smaller, decreasing, and where is still covering, it is broken up on the fringes more so than the bear is use to.

This news is

becoming known and becoming more widely reported. This news is also possibly the influence that may force the USA to act on its climate participation ie cease polluting

the planet with fossil fuel burn.

nat