By how much could sea levels rise?

Question

I'm surprised no-one has asked this question already!

Let's just say that, due to global warming, in the far future, all the ice caps/icy land masses on Earth melted. Where would this put our sea levels? 50m higher? 100m? 150m? 200m?

Maybe it's nothing like that.

Answer 1

I have heard estimates of as much as 1 meter by 2100, but most scientists say more like a few inches. Most of the warming is happening in the northern regions where the polar icecap is essentially a giant ice cube floating in the ocean. Thus, it has already displaced most of the water already. The southern pole has remained fairly stable in decade over decade studies.

I would be more concerned if the influx of fresh water disrupted the ocean currents. Those currents have a major impact on global weather.

Answer 2

This question has been asked many times before.

The most authoritative and honest web site  and referring & correcting IPCC 'errors':

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index....

Best guess is about 6" per century consistently for thousands of years.  Provided we don't enter another ice age (solar minimum).

Remember the glaciers have been melting for over 8000 years - since the end of the last ice age.

What little there is of glaciers left is nothing in comparison to glaciers covering the earth during the big ice age.

Answer 3

It is important to understand that glacial formation is based on the amount of snow falling, the amount melting, and the migration of glaciers, among other things.   If more snow falls as the result of warming, you have to realize that it will remain extremely cold in Greenland.  Glaciation may in fact increase.  It seems to have decreased recently but you could pick other decades where it increased.  Certainly since 10,000 years ago, glaciation has decreased dramatically.  I suspect that 200 feet is about right if all the ice melted.  That is extremely unlikely however.  We have too many continental masses near the poles.  There is no reason to believe that moderate increases in CO2 that humans have added will significantly affect temperature or sea levels beyond their natural variation.

Answer 4

Ballpark 0.5 - 2 M by 2100, but it's conceivable that levels could rise 80 - 100 M over the next few thousand years.   Not something that keeps me awake at night, but I won't be selling my current home and buying any beach front property either.

Answer 5

I did a report on Global Warming heh :p

Sea level will rise 10ft - 20ft per 100 years.

In the future, we can saw good-bye to half of Florida, the Netherlands, San Francisco, Shang-Hai, Beijing and many more.

Answer 6

Can't happen only 2% of solid fresh water verse 71% of salt water.Most of that being land based ontop of a huge indention/ice cap.Much like a cup holding the water.This doesn't include refreezing of melt water which helps create glaciers by blocking the floes.Free floating ice will have no impact what so ever.At the worst you won't even know it's happen.But it could theoretically have other plausible impacts.

Answer 7

stop worrying about that it wont happen for another million years y cant ppl just enjoy life?!?!?!?!

Answer 8

If the full Greenland Ice Sheet melts, we're looking at a 20 foot (6.5 meter) sea level rise.  However, the full sheet is not likely to melt for a few hundred years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080204/ts_n...

If the Antarctic Ice Sheet melts we're looking at several hundred feet more.  Somewhere around 70 meters.  Again, this will not happen for hundreds of years, but the sea levels will gradually rise as the ice sheets melt.

The total potential sea level rise from the melting of glaciers is roughly 80 meters.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/

There will also be some sea level rise due to the thermal expansion of water as the planet and oceans warm, but this will be a relatively small contribution.