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As water is more dense than ice, wouldn't the sea level drop when the ice shelf melts?
by irthomasthomas 1y ago
As water is more dense than ice, wouldn't the sea level drop when the ice shelf melts?
- Matumio 1y agoOnly one way to find out... float some ice cubes in a glass of water and observe. (Edit: I'm back to report the results. There was either no change in the water level, or a change below my measurement tolerance ;) (Edit2: Here is a more serious take of that experiment: https://skepticalscience.com/Sea-level-rise-due-to-floating-ice.html https://skepticalscience.com/Sea-level-rise-due-to-floating-...)
- irthomasthomas 1y agoOk that makes sense thanks.
- _fizz_buzz_ 1y agoFloating ice will displace exactly as much water as it does when it melts to water. Ice that melts on a land mess such as Greenland and Antarctica will raise the ocean level when it melts.
- belorn 1y agoFloating ice will actually increase the ocean a tiny bit as it melts into water because the ice has lower salinity than the ocean. Its comparable to around 3% of ice that melts on a land.
- Avshalom 1y agoNot sea ice obviously but there are places where sea level is "dropping" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound