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I've never understood, is an Antarctica glacier (or polar ice caps) melting akin to adding ice cubes to a glass of water, or is it akin to ice cubes already in
by DavidWanjiru 10y ago
I've never understood, is an Antarctica glacier (or polar ice caps) melting akin to adding ice cubes to a glass of water, or is it akin to ice cubes already in the glass melting? Ice caps on mountain tops melting are clearly akin to the former, but what about ice that's in the water anyway?
- Florin_Andrei 10y agoIn Antarctica, most ice chunks are at rest on solid ground. So, yeah, it's like adding ice cubes to a glass of water.
- _ph_ 10y agoAnd the big problem is, this could be a much faster process, than the melting itself. So we might face a considerable raise of the sea levels in very short times.
- Florin_Andrei 10y agoRight, if very large chunks start sliding downhill.
- detaro 10y agoSea ice melting doesn't change the sea levels, but Antarctica is a land mass with ice on it (and of course ice around it in the water), not just a massive chunk of floating ice.
- astrodust 10y agoSea ice melting does expose bare ocean to more solar heating. Ice is a pretty good insulator, and it's also white which reflects a ton of light. Dark oceans absorb solar energy very well, there's nowhere else for it to go.
- knz 10y agoAs a reference for those that aren't familiar with the Antarctic ice sheet - the average thickness is ~ 2,100m and it contains ~ 60% of all the freshwater on earth. It's orders of magnitude thicker than most glaciers.