What percentage of polar ice is above water, and what percentage is underwater?

Question

Above water, meaning anything on land or above sea level; underwater being anything beneath the sea surface.

Answer 1

it depends what pole you are talking about; they are very different.

Answer 2

i think 10% is above...

i think 90% is below...

Answer 3

Not all polar ice is floating. The ice that is on Greenland is of interest because that mass of ice is above sea level and as it melts it contributes to the rise in oceans as the earth warms up.

The ice that floats will be inconsequential to the rise of the oceans. Over a period of 100 years the ice melt on Greenland could rise the ocean levels by as much as 20 feet.

Time to buy property at elevation?

Answer 4

Antarctica's ice sheets and ice shelf continuously discharge icebergs into the Antarctic sea. These icebergs often have unusual shapes due to the weathering effects. Some of these icebergs are almost as large as the state of Connecticut. Almost 90 percent of the iceberg is under water, which makes shipping and underwater exploration very hazardous (thus the expression "that's only the tip of the iceberg").

Antarctica is actually a continent with ice over it, while the North Pole doesn't have land under it.  It would take a fair amount of searching and calculating to get the ultimate answer.  You would also need to know the thickness of the Antarctic ice.