• Question: If we had a warmer climate, how much damage by flooding would the melted polar regions cause?

    Asked by sazzle to James P on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi sazzle,

      I think I was just answering this when the chat closed earlier, really sorry I couldn’t fire it off quick enough!

      The Ice stored on Greenland and Antarctica would cause approximately 100-120m of sea level rise if it all melted. So anywhere that was less than 100m below sea level would be flooded.

      http://mapsof.net/map/topographic-map-of-the-uk

      So on this map, All the dark green and most of the light green would be flooded, so that is most of England under water. However, it will take a long time for all this ice to melt, and you can do an experiment to prove this at home (if your parents allow you to).

      Take a small plastic water bottle and fill it it with water. Poor this water into a freezer bag and seal teh freezer bag so no water can escape. Then re-fill the bottle and put both in the freezer, ensuring the bag is flat on it’s side.

      Leave it to freeze solid and you should then have two chunks of ice both the same size, but one flat and thin and the other a big block in the bottle. Take them out and wait for them to melt (put them in a sink to keep everywhere dry!).

      The flat thin ice will melt much sooner than the big chunk of ice, even in really warm conditions. Our ice sheets are like the big chunk of ice and even when the world is warming they are really good at not melting too quickly. So while they will melt, it won’t be for a hundred years or more before we sea really big melting that raises sea level by a couple of metres.

Comments