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With the polar caps melting, I've been wondering....
All that water has been trapped at the poles of the earth, but with the melting and with the rotation of the earth, it's going to end up more toward the equator. Well, what is that huge shift of weight of that water going to do to the earth's rotation and gravitational axis? Are we going to get a big increase in earthquakes or volcanic eruptions as the weights and pressures above and around fault lines and tectonic plates changes?
I haven't seen that addressed in the discussions of climate change/polar ice melt (although I haven't dug very deep into the literature, I admit).
With the polar caps melting, I've been wondering....
All that water has been trapped at the poles of the earth, but with the melting and with the rotation of the earth, it's going to end up more toward the equator. Well, what is that huge shift of weight of that water going to do to the earth's rotation and gravitational axis? Are we going to get a big increase in earthquakes or volcanic eruptions as the weights and pressures above and around fault lines and tectonic plates changes?
I haven't seen that addressed in the discussions of climate change/polar ice melt (although I haven't dug very deep into the literature, I admit).
What do you think?
I would think there wouldnt be much change from the melting of the northern ice cap as its already floating and thereby is already displacing its own weight rather like an ice cube in a glass of water doesnt raise the level of water in the glass as it melts.
Melting arctic ice will be a boon to shipping as they could then shave 4000 miles off trips going from Pacific to Atlantic by using new routes via Canadas northwest passage. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/arct...eams-1.1230437
I would think there wouldnt be much change from the melting of the northern ice cap as its already floating and thereby is already displacing its own weight rather like an ice cube in a glass of water doesnt raise the level of water in the glass as it melts.
That's true to some extent but fresh water ice floats much higher in salt water so when it melts it's going to cause more rise than if it were in fresh water. The ice in the arctic is a combination of fresh water ice and sea ice. Mostly irrelevant because a lot of the worlds ice is on land and if were to melt the sea is definitely going up a lot.
Here's the extents, as you can see the Artic is below the averages and Antarctic is above.
Sea levels have been rising since the end of the last ice age. Here's a graph from The Battery in NYC. If you look at any of these graphs one thing to keep in mind is the land itself is moving, you can find some that are going down. The rate are all over the place. The Battery is relatively stable geographic region. One commonality you'll find is it's steady rate no matter what graph you look at.
This is one of the more interesting graphs because it shows the rise accelerating and decelerating. Be careful not misinterpret this because the flat line would the red line in the graph above.
Quote:
Linear mean sea level trends were calculated in overlapping 50-year increments for stations with sufficient historical data. The variability of each 50-year trend, with 95% confidence interval, is plotted against the mid-year of each 50-year period. The solid horizontal line represents the linear mean sea level trend using the entire period of record.
Interesting stuff, but it seems to address more the issue of water rising, not the differential of the weight distribution over the earth's surface once the ice melts (or, if it does, I guess I need it explained in a simpler fashion, 'cuz I'm not getting it).
That's true to some extent but fresh water ice floats much higher in salt water so when it melts it's going to cause more rise than if it were in fresh water. The ice in the arctic is a combination of fresh water ice and sea ice. Mostly irrelevant because a lot of the worlds ice is on land and if were to melt the sea is definitely going up a lot.
Sigh.
Have experiments been done that support the claim of those who produced the charts? Or is this yet more of computer models?
Graphs are meaningless without context. So lets see some context!!!!!
If you simply spread the resulting increase in sea level evenly around the world, it would amount to about 5 meters’ worth. But the ice sheet’s gravity is currently keeping sea level artificially low in the Northern Hemisphere, so if it disappeared, the actual increase along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast would be more like 6.3 meters. In other words, as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melts and loses mass, its pull on the surrounding ocean will lessen. Seas will drop around Antarctica and parts of the Southern Hemisphere, and that water will be displaced to more northerly areas, such as the east coast of the U.S.
Now that the gorilla has made its presence known, Stouffer is working with Mitrovica to understand its effects in greater detail. A joint paper, due out in a few months, will look into the gravitationally driven sea-level changes a melting Greenland could trigger. “The signal is so large,” says Stouffer, “that if you own beachfront property in Iceland, and all of the ice on Greenland melts and adds seven meters to average sea level, you end up with more beach. But in Hawaii, you get your seven meters of sea-level rise plus an extra two or three on top of that. It’s phenomenal to me that it matters that much.”
The graphs I posted? Those are from observations, they are what they are.
There are those among us who either don't comprehend what the blue underlined text means, or don't want be bothered by clicking on it to receive "context".
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