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Originally Posted by dellwear
What Ras says is true its because when water freezes the molecules of water form an open structure rather than the tight structure of liquid water. The theory works fine for ice in the sea, BUT, what about the glaciers that are on land? 
So taking that all into account the water levels WILL rise as the atmosphere warms up.< Snip> |
But, the quantity of water that is contained within the land-based glaciers is fairly minimal compared to the quantity that is contained within submerged ice elsewhere. The savings in volume (God, I sound like a Government official) which are gained by the melting of this submerged ice should (in theory at least) create a reduction in overall sea-level which is sufficient to accomodate the water generated from the melting of land-based glaciers.
Actually, it might be kind of interesting if somebody would actually do the measurements of the different glaciers and do the maths on this one to see what the net increase / decrease in sea-level will actually be. I'm prepared to bet that it will be almost nothing!