I don’t doubt your assessment, but would you mind sourcing and posting the calculation so I can use it with my linked Qatarra Depression calculation?
I suggest that you look at the Salton Sea, located in the southern California desert. It is the largest lake in the state, and is fed almost entirely from agricultural runoff.
If they really were shrinking at 48 cubic miles per year, it would take over 1,600 years for them to lose one percent of the Greenland + Antarctic estimated sum of about 7.8 million cubic miles.
In one of the report’s most worrisome findings, the agency estimates that in light of recent ice sheet melting, global sea level rise could be as much as four feet by 2100. The IPCC had projected a sea level rise of no more than 1.5 feet by that time, but satellite data over the past two years show the world’s major ice sheets are melting much more rapidly than previously thought. The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are now losing an average of 48 cubic miles of ice a year, equivalent to twice the amount of ice that exists in the Alps.
2001 estimate - CBS News
Antarctica contains about 7.2 million cubic miles of ice, about 84 percent of all the glacial ice on Earth, according to the USGS.
Volume of Antarctica’s Ice Cap, 1974 estimate
...Antarctica’s approximately 6,000,000 cubic miles of ice...
East Antarctic Ice Sheet Gains Mass and Slows Sea Level Rise, Study Finds
From 1992 to 2003, Curt Davis, MU professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team of researchers observed 7.1 million kilometers of the ice sheet, using satellites to measure changes in elevation. They discovered that the ice sheet’s interior was gaining mass by about 45 billion tons per year, which was enough to slow sea level rise by .12 millimeters per year. The interior of the ice sheet is the only large terrestrial ice body that is likely gaining mass rather than losing it, Davis said.
Eco-Economy Indicators, 2005: Ice is Allegedly Melting Everywhere
A conservative estimate of annual ice loss from Greenland is 50 cubic kilometers (12 cubic miles) per year, enough water to raise the global sea level by 0.13 millimeters a year.
1974 estimate, Volume of Greenland’s ice cap
The Greenland ice cap with its volume of 630,000 cubic miles...
Estimate as of “Today”
The Greenland Ice Sheet holds 2.95 × 106 cubic kilometers (706,000 cubic miles) of ice