Coragyps wrote:
"Ned answered the part about "already
afloat" ice sheets - the big concern
seems to be whether the partially
grounded ice sheets and the humungous
glaciers that feed them are accelerating
their journey back into seawater,
possibly accelerated by rising sea
levels. There's a lot of research
activity on the subject, but I'm not
knowledgeable enough in it all to
evaluate any risks."
Some web pages that provide some information in respect to this question are:
1."31 March 2002 , Antarctica Key To Sudden Sea Level Rise"
Antarctica Key To Sudden Sea Level Rise - ScienceAGoGo
"In less than 500 years at the end of
the last Ice Age, this event caused the
Earth's sea level to rise about 70 feet.
That's about four times faster than sea
levels were rising most of the time
during this period, and at least 20
times faster than the sea level is
currently rising."
...text deleted....
"What is very clear, however, is the
importance of Antarctica's huge ice
sheets remaining stable. The West
Antarctic ice sheet is thought to be
potentially unstable, and if it
collapsed sea levels around the world
would rise almost 20 feet. The melting
of the larger and more stable East
Antarctic ice sheet would raise
Earth's sea levels another 200 feet."
++++++++
2. USGS "Estimated Present-Day Area* and Volume* of Glaciers
and Maximum Sea Level Rise Potential" at:
USGS URL Resolution Error Page
Location/Area/Volume/maximum sea level rise (m)
Antarctic/13,586,400(km2)/30,109,800(km3)/73.44 m
East Antarctica/10,153,170(km2)/26,039,200(km3)/64.80 m
West Antarctica/1,918,170(km2)/3,262,000(km3)/8.06 m
Antarctic Peninsula/ 446,690(km2)/227,100(km3)/0.46 m
Ross Ice Shelf/536,070(km2)/229,600(km3)/0.01m
Ronne-Filchner ice sheves/532,200(km2)/351,900(km3)/ 0.11 m
++++++++
"Ice Sheets and Sea Level Rise" By : Claire L. Parkinson,
Oceans and Ice Branch, Code 971, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt MD 20771 at:
http://pumas.jpl.nasa.gov/PDF_Examples/02_10_97_1.pdf
"Exercise : Determine the amount
that sea level would rise, averaged
around the globe, in response to the
complete melting of (a) the Greenland
ice sheet, (b) the Antarctic ice sheet,
and (c) both the Greenland and
Antarctic ice sheets."
"The answers are: (a) (2,343,728 cubic
kilometers)/(361,132,000 square kilometers)
= 0.0065 kilometers = 6.5 meters for
the Greenland ice sheet; (b) (26,384,368
cubic kilometers)/(361,132,000 square
kilometers) = 0.0731 kilometers = 73.1
meters for the Antarctic ice sheet;
(c) 6.5 meters + 73.1 meters = 79.6 meters
for Greenland and Antarctica together"
Yours,
Bill Birkeland
[This message has been edited by Bill Birkeland, 11-03-2003]