Here’s some excerpts: Posted on 03/09/2011 8:54:27 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
There’s some surprising reaction to the press release we covered on WUWT recently.
Here’s some excerpts:
Knowing how the massive ice sheets atop Antarctica and Greenland work is key to
predicting how global warming could raise sea levels and flood coastal cities. But a new study upends what scientists thought they knew. It turns out it’s not just ancient snow that makes up the ice sheets, but water deep under the sheets also thaws and refreezes over time.
To put it in non-scientific terms, lead scientist Robin Bell told msnbc.com, the study
redefines “how squishy” the base of ice sheets can be. “This matters to how fast ice will flow and how fast ice sheets will change.”
“It also means that ice sheet models are not correct,” she said, comparing it to “trying to
figure out how a car will drive but forgetting to add the tires. The performance will be very
different if you are driving on the rims.”
Reporting in this week’s issue of the peer-reviewed journal Science, Bell and his team
described how ice-penetrating radar peeled back two miles of ice a million years old in the
center of Antarctica.
more on the East Antarctica ice sheet.
Take a glass. Fill it with ice cubes. Add water until the ice reaches the rim. What happens when the ice melts? Does the glass overflow with water?
“Take a glass. Fill it with ice cubes. Add water until the ice reaches the rim. What happens when the ice melts? Does the glass overflow with water?”
That’s only true for ice floating in water (like the Arctic). In the antarctic the ice is sitting on land.
Not sure where you are going with that....the Ice Sheet is not in water.
This radar image shows part of the East Antarctic ice sheet (top), a bulge of refrozen ice (center), and the profile of a mountain range buried deep below (outlined in red). Full story plus an interactive tool here
It’s an experiment. If the ice sheet melts in entirety nothing will happen. When the earth was formed, some water remained liquid and some froze. It’s the same amount of water in either case. The oceans will not rise, the glass will not overflow.
But it’s the same amount of water that was around at the beginning of the earth. Some was liquid, some froze and some is gas (i.e. vapor).
It's pointing out that there is a water layer at times b/w the land and ice and that sometimes it can be pretty deep.
“It’s an experiment. If the ice sheet melts in entirety nothing will happen. When the earth was formed, some water remained liquid and some froze. It’s the same amount of water in either case. The oceans will not rise, the glass will not overflow.”
The amount of water is the same but during ice ages the sea level decreases as more ice is located on land. That’s what causes land bridges to form between continents.
“It’s pointing out that there is a water layer at times b/w the land and ice and that sometimes it can be pretty deep.”
The issue is further complicated because the weight of the ice pushes the land mass down. That may mean the land is below sea level which would reduce the amount of sea level rise when the ice melts. However, some think that if the ice melts the land mass will rise and that would increase the sea level. All this is hypothetical anyway since the ice isnt melting.
Same thing here...if you free up (in theory) all the fresh water locked up in ice at the north and south poles...melt it...the sea level will rise. Will that happen? No way...but what you are saying about NOTHING happening is false.
Here's an experiment. Get a 20 gallon aquarium. Fill it with small gravel so that they are at a 45 degree angle up the side of the tank. Fill it 1/2 with water. Mark the level of water. Now...on the "dry side" of the tank...put a bunch of ice on top of the gravel. Let the ice melt.
Did the water in the tank rise? You bet.
Same thing would happen with the earth.
It certainly is. You need someone who has spent years studying sea level to give you the inside scoop.
Claim That Sea Level Is Rising Is a Total Fraud - Dr. Nils-Axel Morner
AGW in a nutshell!
The thing about Antarctica is that it is a continent. The ice is piled on top of it, several miles deep in some places. Above sea level. If that ice were to melt somehow, sea level could rise somewhat. How much is probably mathematically predictable. It would still take a really long time because the sheer mass of it is incomprehensible, and the temperatures there are so far below freezing that a whole lot of warming would have to take place before it even got as high as freezing. That would mean no melting would occur for quite a while.
As to the premise of the article: It is no surprise that water would be found under ice. If there is any geothermal activity in Antarctica, some ice would melt, and since water is heavier than ice, it would stay down there. Ice is also a great insulator. It is quite possible that there are whole lakes and rivers underneath the ice cap. I would bet that bodies of water as big as Lake Tahoe could be found under the ice, in liquid form. With fish.
But the thing is: All the water that exists now is the same amount that was around during the beginning of earth. When the glaciers extended down from the poles where did the water come from? Did continents sink? There was a story in the news how this one island in the Marshal’s was being covered by water due to climate warming. None of the other islands were being covered. The island was sinking. Water is not being created. We have the same amount since creation.
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