Ice melting in a glass of water doesn't change the water level. So why do icebergs melting mean rising oceans?
Answer:
Because most of the ice refered to is on the antartic continent, out of the water.
Take a bucket of water and pretend that is the ocean, in ice block loating in the bucket and melting would not raise the level by much at all.
Now take half a bucket of water. this represents the water locked up in ice on the continent of antarctica, now pour that into the first bucket(the ocean), you will note that the water level rises quiet a lot.
Hope this helps.
i thought that ice melting in a glass of water does rise the water level...
really good f-n question. i would have to say F the theorist who say it will
You are right, but only if all the ice is at or below the level of water in the glass. If the ice is above the water level, then when it it will raise the water level.
Imagine next winter (if we have one J/J) getting a 2 foot long icicle and putting it in a glass of water, when the icicle melts, the water level will be higher.
It's not icebergs melting which is the issue as they are 95% below the water, it's ice shelf ice, which is all above the water.
Because there is a lot of difference between ice in a glass and icebergs in the sea.
If the glass was filled upto the brim with ice and THEN melted?
ice in a glass of water will make the level go up a slight bit. It is not significant enough for you to notice, unless you mark it in the glass. You only see the iceberg's tip, which is more likely only 25% of the iceberg's full size, the majority of the iceberg lies underneath the water. A melting iceberg can significantly change the rising of our oceans because of it's sheer size and water volume. I suggest for you to watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
Wel if you look at liberal physics, the water level in fact really does go up, but it is reduced by the water tax.
You're actually absolutely right, for the Arctic. The Arctic ocean melt won't mean much of a difference, though it will change the saline levels in the water, which has other implications.
However, think of ice melting on the edge of the glass of water and running into it, this is ice that's not in the glass, when it melts it does raise the level in the glass.
This is what will happen with the Antarctic melt, because it has land underneath, but all the ice is built on top of it, as it melts, it starts to raise the water level. Same goes for Greenland. The land mass is holding the ice out of the water, when it melts, it melts into the water.
So while what you say is true for the Arctic, it's false for any ice over a land mass. It'll drain into the ocean. So the Antarctic and Greenland are bigger problems, the more they melt, the higher it goes.
This is all factored into Ocean level rise models. Scientists would get a lot of flack for overlooking something so basic.
Another interesting thing is that the warmer the water, the less oxygen is in it. This means that even if water raises a couple degrees fish will have a harder time breathing, which means less time mating and smaller fish.
Any amount of water, any amount of ice.if you allow the ice to melt, and you're not ACTIVELY drinking the water, the level of water in the glass WILL increase, the level of ice will decrease.If you simply remove the ice from the water then the apparent water level, depending on the ratio of ice to water, will appear to decrease, this is only because ice is a solid, and though through melting, some water may get sucked into the ice, the water is still going to appear higher as it formed around the ice.fill up a glass with ice all the way to the top, then add water...and you would appear to have a full glass of water..take out the ice, and you'd have half a glass if you were lucky..Anyway, ice melting in water, WILL increase the AMOUNT of water, but the absence of ICE will make it appear there may be less water.
Because a lot of the ice burgs are above the ocean level and stick out , and when it melts it goes down into the ocean.
Actually, the water level in a glass of water with ice cubes will GO DOWN when the ice melts, because liquid water contracts in when it melts (unlike most substances, which expand when they melt). HOWEVER, the analogy of ice in a glass to inebergs in the ocean is a bad analogy.
There are two reasons. One is that icebergs come from glaciers that are on land. When that ice slides into the ocean and melts, it adds water to the oceans that wasn't there before. Second is that the sea ice that is already in the water, like at the north pole, partially floats on top of the water because sea water contains salts. When the sea ice melts, it causes a slight rise in sea level, but worse it lowers the salinity of the oceans, which causes other problems for the global climate and for sea life.
To see how this works in a glass of water, do the following: Fill the glass to the top, which will serve as the ocean, then add ice cubes (the glaciers sliding off the land), and the glass, obviously, will overflow. To do an experiment which roughly equals the sea ice problem, fill a glass with water and add about 20 heaping tablespoons of salt. Put an ice cube in the water, and see how it partially floats out of the water (like an ice berg). When it melts, the water level will rise a little bit.
Icebergs float and are in water, so the main problem with them melting is the extra water made available for evaporation and subsequent clouding of the atmosphere, thereby cooling the earth but not fast enough to stop the melting, apparently - don't know what the effect on the density of salt water from new fresh water sources is but imagine it has a negative effect on sea creatures that would take too many years for them to adapt to it all.
But before icebergs hit that water, they are part of gigantic glaciers atop land and not affecting sea levels.
The difference between our new ice age and those of old is the population of human beings on earth - humans who consume natural (and all other) resources faster than they can be replenished by us or nature.
We are our own worst enemy.
Melting glaciers that the icebergs break off from are the problem--not the icebergs themselves. As glaciers melt they drop more "cubes of ice" (icebergs) into the glass of water (the oceans)--just like if you kept adding more real ice cubes to a real glass of water. That's all. It's merely careless wording that we see, stating in error that melting icebergs cause ocean levels to rise. No, melting GLACIERS cause ocean levels to rise because they give birth to many more icebergs--which do then melt and add to the volume of the world's seawater. Just like would happen with a drink on your table if you kept adding cubes of ice to it.
Ice melting does raise the water level
Put a piece of ice in an empty cup, and when it melts there is water.
Do this test: put enough ice in the glass so that some of the ice is sticking out of the cup. The cup will overflow if you do this correctly.
Same for ice shelves and glaciers - some of the ice may be under the water, but the majority of the ice is ABOVE the water (the opposite is true for icebergs, though, most of that ice is under the water). When the top melts, it flows into the ocean and over time raises the water level.
I think it actually does
Archimedes understood buoyancy 2200 years ago, apparently better than many of us technologically advanced modern educated type people of today.
A one kilogram piece of ice floating in a bathtub will displace one kilogram of water in order to float.
When that one kilogram of ice melts, it will be one kilogram of water and will still displace one kilogram of water. The level in the tub does not change.
However... The ice cap on Greenland doesn't float on water, and neither does most of the Antartic icecap. When the Arctic icecap (which does float on the sea) melts, it will not change the sea level.
Greenlands or the southern ice cap melting and flowing to the sea is like throwing more ice in your bathtub: the water level will go up.
Did you know that you are made entirely out of co2 as are all living things. and did you know that the ocean is the greatest CO2 emitter. Check out this documenty on you tube its is done buy the head climitologist at MIT, and the head of the IPCC. Its called the The great global warming swindal. It seperates fact from popular held myths of Global warming. its 8 parts or about a hour long
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxc9h5jsy...
Because of the part of the berg that is above water level. Ice in a glass of water is typically completely submerged.
A floating ice cube in a glass of water that melts does not increase the level because it is submerged and is already a part of the volume in the glass . Icebergs melting causes chunks of ice to fall into the ocean the same as adding another ice cube into your glass. Keep filling your glass with ice and it will over flow.
A lot of the ice that would melt is also on land or the floor of the sea. It is thousands of feet thick so it would make a difference.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: