riverrat writes
quote:
I was under the impression if the ice caps melted completely, that the oceans would rise 20feet.
I know you probably are not thinking of the flood, but just to be on the safe side, I've climbed up to the continental divide on the Rockies several times, and it's many thousand feet more than 20.
quote:
If the caps have melted 40%, where is the 8 feet of water?
The northern ice cap doesn't affect the water level much, since it floating on the water anyway. What some people might be concerned about is the amount of fresh water that is dumped into the ocean, causing the saline level of the ocean to drop... but that's another story. The ice on greenland is more of a local ecological concern because it's not much to be concerned about globally.
What people are worried about is the ice down on antarctica. Because it's a really big piece of land with ice that covers the entire continent and is several miles deep (that's a lot of water), it would be a world wide disaster at every coastal area on Earth if all that ice melt away.