We are being constantly told that our polar ice caps are melting, that pieces the size of some states are breaking away from the mass and floating to their melting graves. And it is true. We have all seen the pictures. Seen the movies. Even heard the great ice shelves calving.
But have the ocean waters risen? Haven’t heard anything about that. Just that it is inevitable. Just that low-lying countries and Pacific islands are doomed.
But is it true? If the polar ice caps really are melting, and all the evidence says they are, where is the water going? I mean, shouldn’t there be some ocean creep? Or is this a case of physics? That the weight of the water being displaced is being occupied by the melting water itself. Does that make sense? And if that is true, won’t it continue to be true?
Where are the melting polar ice cap waters?
The North Pole ice cap floats on water. The ice displaces approximately the same amount of sea water as the liquid water that forms when the ice melts. In effect, when the North Pole ice cap melts, sea level does not rise.
This is not true for mountain glaciers, the Greenland glacier, or the South Pole ice cap. If these melt, we will see the sea levels rise. Right now, it appears that the mass balance of the Greenland and South Pole ice sheets are about in equilibrium; the errors in the measurements are on the same order of magnitude as the measurements. But the mountain glaciers are losing mass, and we do see it in the sea level measurements.
By: N. Johnson on 31 May, 2007
at 8:45 pm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/
By: politicsnpoetry on 31 May, 2007
at 8:48 pm
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By: Answer to where are those polar ice cap waters? « Carson’s Post on 31 May, 2007
at 9:18 pm