Melting ice caps...

[lilredmachine]

I was thinking about this the other day... The ice caps must weigh so much, and so are displacing a certain amount of water. They already raise the sea level a set amount, so if they were levered out of the water, the sea level would drop greatly. Surely, if the ice caps melt, all they would do is replace the weight that they are already exerting with solid mass with a liquid mass.

For example, when the icecaps freeze the surrounding area during their winter, i don't notice the water level drop dramatically...

So currently, i get the atlantic conveyor belt stopping due to fresh water, but I don't see how the water level will rise.
____________________
Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.

[ash t]

Hmmm interesting.

Its one for a clever person to think about.
____________________
When You're Starting To Choke, Take Some Pills With Your Coke, Its Hyserical

[killa]

Although I can’t calculate the entire mass of these caps I would say the effect on the global temperature would be the main cause of strange water levels occurring.
____________________
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
Bike:- Yamaha TRX850 | Killas Biking History | Killas Gaming History | Killas autmotive history

[lilredmachine]

The real point is that the northern hemisphere will go into another ice age, instantly refreezing that ice cap
____________________
Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.

[Dom]

Just use the fat bloke/paddling pool analogy.

- Fat bloke isn't in paddling pool, water level is normal.
- Fat bloke jumps in, water and/or small children overflowing all over the place.

Tis simple.
____________________
Photos and that

[Sparks!]

But if you take the ice cap out.............................. where do you put it?

[Steve H]

I used to go out with a bird who wore the cap as a contraceptive device.

Unfortunately I only found out it was an ice one after my nob suffered from frostbite.

Copyright Steve H gutter humour 2006
____________________
Mellow Yellow
The BCF Top TEN - 2010, 2009, 2008, The Original.

[innominate]

IIRC most of (all?) the major ice sheets are on land. Greenland and Antartica
So if they melt they go straight into the sea & raise it.


Random thoughts:-
The land underneath will rebound a little, once the ice is gone.
This could actually cause the sea levels to rise even further wround the rest of teh world? Think antartica raising up by a few m if all its ice melts.
____________________
I, as a responsible adult human being, will never concede the power to anyone to regulate my choice of what I put into my body, or where I go with my mind. From the skin inwards is my jurisdiction, is it not? I choose what may or may not cross that border. Here I am the customs agent. I am the coast-guard. I am the sole legal and spiritual government of this territory, and only the laws I choose to enact within myself are applicable.

[greatmoorred]

I heard that scotland is still rising after the last ice age !!

[Kram]

all the ice underneath the sea level is displacing water, so when that melts nothing will happen.

All the ice which is ontop of the sea level is not displacing water, when it melts, the level will rise.
____________________
FS1E -> SR125 -> CB400N -> CB650 -> FZR600 Genises -> VFR400 NC21 -> CBR900RR Fireblade -> Renault Clio 1.4

[Suzuki]

[Kickstart]

Hi

One ice cap is pretty much floating and its melting would have no effect on sea level. The one where much of the ice is on land would have an effect, but a further effect is that if water temperature rises then the seas expand. On the other hand there is evidence that sea levels have fallen over the past couple of centuries.

Claims of what is happening to the ice caps tends to be rather partisan, looking at one area and ignoring others. Sort of "ooh, look, this bit of ice has broken away so if we ignore that bit that has got thicker then we can claim it is all melting".

Anyway, before worrying about that they need to show that temperature is rising noticeably (difficult to show when they only have about 27 years of accurate global temperature records), let alone whether human input is having any effect.

Far too much political fiddling currently going on to know what is really happening.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[killa]

[innominate]

Yer, I live on a hill.

+ I never really rated London anyway
____________________
I, as a responsible adult human being, will never concede the power to anyone to regulate my choice of what I put into my body, or where I go with my mind. From the skin inwards is my jurisdiction, is it not? I choose what may or may not cross that border. Here I am the customs agent. I am the coast-guard. I am the sole legal and spiritual government of this territory, and only the laws I choose to enact within myself are applicable.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Question is, is global temperature really increasing over the long term? Sure a couple of hundred years ago there was a cold spell when the river Thames froze over. Just as several hundred years before that the world was warmer. Go back to Roman times and the south of England was warm enough to grow grapes for wine.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[innominate]

You can't really say one way or the other.


I do think we should try and minimise our emmisions, because we do know we are changing the atmosphere (wether it has any effect is another question) & it would be best to try and play it safe. IMHO.



/possibly ill informed musing ON
One thing though.
The carbon released from our industries is just carbon that was locked in the ground via dead animals forests from ages ago. They converted atmospheric carbon to non-atmospheric.

Doesnt tectonic movement release these gasses as it pulls these reserves back towards the centre of the planet? (Geologist could advise me here)

so any equilibrium there could be would be based on speed of fossil carbon depositing and the rate of continental shelf subduction.
/possibly ill informed musing OFF
____________________
I, as a responsible adult human being, will never concede the power to anyone to regulate my choice of what I put into my body, or where I go with my mind. From the skin inwards is my jurisdiction, is it not? I choose what may or may not cross that border. Here I am the customs agent. I am the coast-guard. I am the sole legal and spiritual government of this territory, and only the laws I choose to enact within myself are applicable.

[Visitor Q]

Something to amuse you, i believe its called isotonic shift... but basically we are still rebounding from the last ice age, and the south is sinking and the north is getting higher...

And lilred, you're right the conveyor belt will stop, but bear in mind, that artificially raises our temperature (look across parallel, we are level with siberia and shit) above our level.

https://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gccourse/ocean/images/image2.gif

The conveyor belt WILL stop with simply the melting of the block of ice directly above the highest 'loop' on that diagram. Should that melt, the temperature of england with drop about 5+ degrees instantly. Thats pleasant isnt it
____________________
China traffic/travel bike vid - When I make a sweeping statement, please add the word 'statistically' in to the sentence before you bitch...
From September 2014 to January/February 2015 I will not be using any English, nor reading any. As such, I won't be on here. PM at will, but I won't be checking/posting unless in emergencies. Certainly not for the first couple of months. Please berate me savagely if I break that rule...

[lilredmachine]

Thats what i mean, the one at the south is all ice right? so if that melts, as has been correctly pointed out, it makes very little difference to sea level as it is already displacing the amount of water that it ever will, however, the one at the north will melt, stop the conveyor, freeze the north, and then itself. It balances out surely...

Just a point though, the only matter ever to pass through the atmosphere is what we push through it and what forces it's way in (meteors etc.) i reckon because of this, what we can do is purely temporary and insignificant, as it'll sort itself out before long anyway. We can never loose water entirely, if it unfreezes from somewhere, logic dictates it will freeze somewhere else.
____________________
Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.

[innominate]

Nope.


Antarctica is almost all land.
https://www.ecology.com/ecology-today/earth-warms/images/antarctica_sat_image.jpg
As this image shows.

[lilredmachine]

but wait a minute, if the ice melts, the land will be about 1.5 miles below the sea, surely? then the sea has the area the size of a small continent to fill, that is 1 mile minimum deep, surely that'd take the edge off it?
____________________
Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.

[innominate]

Not sure how high/deep the antarctic continental shelf is tbh.
another webby I was looking at said the continent was pushed down by up to 2000ft in places by the weight of the ice.

so if it melted the continent would rebound up as well.


I think antarctica is quite high, so if the ice melted the land itself would still be above sea level.

[Biker-Kev]

Mate, you know your stuff.
____________________
Zhongyu ZY50, Aprilia SR50, Motorhispania RX50, Aprilia RS125, Honda VFR400 nc24 and my corsa
https://www.bikepics.com/members/bikerkev/
Theory: Passed 8/11/2005 Practical: Passed 13/12/2005 Proud holder of A2 license

[Scorpius]

I blame it on those selfish bikers.
____________________
Cagiva Mito 125 (sold)
Honda CBR400RR NC23 (sold)
Currently riding: Honda CBR600F

[Whosthedaddy]

[McJamweasel]