

High snowfall and cold weather to blame.











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RE: Son of a...
By Lifted on 10/16/2008 10:28:39 AM , Rating: 2
What would happen if all of the ice covering Antarctica melted? Would most of the planet be covered by water, or just coastal areas?

If yes...

Could a brief warming of Earth and melting of the poles have caused the sudden extinction of most dinosaurs and plant life (on land), yet happened so briefly as to leave little evidence that most of the earth was covered in water at one or more points in history?

RE: Son of a...
By Lifted on 10/16/08, Rating: 0
RE: Son of a...
By Lifted on 10/16/08, Rating: 0
RE: Son of a...
By borismkv on 10/16/2008 11:12:23 AM , Rating: 4
<Insert Noah's ark joke here>

RE: Son of a...
By masher2 on 10/16/2008 11:10:44 AM , Rating: 4
If all the ice in Antarctica and Greenland melted, it would raise sea levels by about 70 any area more than 70m above sea level would not be submerged. Ice mass in Antarctica is on a long-term growing trend, however, so that's a very unlikely event anytime in the next several thousand years.

There have been times in Earth's far past when sea levels were as much as 400m higher than they are today...but that seems to have been driven by changes in topology as well as melting ice -- a 'flatter' Earth can be covered by a much smaller amount of water.

RE: Son of a...
By phazers on 10/16/2008 3:25:44 PM , Rating: 2
I read only 60 meters (200 ft) - see the Wiki article - but still that would put most of Florida under water, not to mention the Netherlands.

Conversely if most of the Artic icecap melted, sea levels would not change much since Artic ice is mostly floating already. If you have a glass full of ice cubes and water, and leave it overnight, you won't find a big puddle next morning (other than condensation). In fact, ice is less dense than water (since it floats), so the total volume would go down as the ice melts.

If Al Gore melted, we'd all be knee-deep in liquid fertilizer :)

RE: Son of a...
By FITCamaro on 10/16/2008 3:31:53 PM , Rating: 1
If Al Gore dies ManBearPig will kill our imaginations. The solution is to nuke our imaginations.

RE: Son of a...
By modus2 on 10/17/2008 12:48:01 PM , Rating: 2
Actually the volume remains constant, the ice displaces exactly the same amount of water it contains --

There is one reservation though, since desity varies with temperature (highest at 4C (approx 40F)) the above holds if the water in the glass is given sufficient time to reach the same temperature after ice insertion as it had before.

RE: Son of a...
By jimbojimbo on 10/16/2008 2:22:06 PM , Rating: 2
A lot of people think if you put ice in a glass and fill it to the very top with water that when the ice melts the water will rise and spill all over the place.

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