If the Glaciers Melt Overnight

[BeFree]

It has been said that Antarctica is gonna melt into the sea. What will happen? What will be the direct consequences?

Estimates of 15 to 20 foot sea rise are well known. One wonders what would happen if enough displacement occurred and that rise were to happen overnight.

Would there be a giant Tsunami washing across the world?

Wouldn't the world's seaports find themselves flooded and ships unable to dock thereby ending ship-based commerce as we know it? No matter if the rise happened all at once or over a year's time.

In a Tsunami scenario all the land close to the oceans would be flooded many miles inland with a 15 foot rise.

The backwash would carry all manner of material, mud and pollution back to the sea. Has anybody been looking into how the Indian Ocean has held up since that area's backwash?

Has anybody else been thinking about how such a catastrophic calamity would alter life as we know it?

[phantom power]

1. A couple things...

In fact, if Antarctica melted completely, it would be around 200 feet. A total melt of Greenland would represent about 20 feet.

I don't see that there is any potential for a tsunami scenario. Ice itself just won't melt that fast, unless it's subjected to something like an atom bomb or a meteor impact. In which case, a tsunami is probably the least of our worries.

The other way a tsunami might happen is if a large "ice-slide" occurs. To my knowledge, there isn't any geology to support that kind of scenario, although I'd hardly be guaranteed to know if there were.

[BeFree]

2. Yeah

If enough ice melts there could very well be a slide... like that lake down under that is said to be getting ready to slide.

The story on that ice lake ready to slide is somewhere on this forum, but I don't have search capabilities these days.

[XemaSab]

3. Glacial ice is plastic at its base

That stuff can BOOK if the circumstances are right, but the circumstances do not seem to be right on a large scale for either Antarctica or Greenland. :shrug:

[BeFree]

12. See

The Sea Sheperd link below and tell me about your geology lessons.

And lets not forget the biblical story of Noah's Ark... a massive slide could very well have been the harbringer of such a calamity.

[Systematic Chaos]

4. I have a nightmare scenario about this (which was a real nightmare!)

The damn thing was so real that I couldn't believe it was only a dream when I woke up. I dreamt I was in the breakroom at my job before the start of my shift, the TV against the wall tuned to CNN. Suddenly there's a huge "Breaking News" fanfare with a frantic reporter saying that a "huge" amount of ice had slid into the ocean. This was supposedly in the hundreds of square miles and slid off all at once. I don't remember if it was off Greenland or Antarctica, but I remember that it was enough to cause a rise in sea level of one foot at most. Far more disastrous, however, was that this event generated a global tsunami that literally wiped out every town on every coast of every ocean over the course of the day. It was like one huge Katrina only on a global scale.

When I woke up I was drenched in sweat in a bedroom that was well under 80 degrees. This was a few months ago now but every time this subject is brought up I relive that damn nightmare. It was that freaking real. I just hope nothing that sudden and traumatic happens to us anytime soon.

[BeFree]

8. Jeez

That is some nightmare. Sorry to have reminded you, but it is something we should all be cognizant of so that we might be prepared.

Peace.

[Systematic Chaos]

10. It's okay. The odds of something that serious are slim...

...all at once anyway. But I am trying to prepare myself for the eventuality that the sea level will rise by several feet over time in my lifetime. It's still shitty no matter what. :(

[highplainsdem]

5. A Sea Shepherd news release on a possible tsunami if the Ross Ice Shelf

collapses can be found on their website, at

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_061215_1.html

[phantom power]

6. I am having trouble visualizing the scenario they are describing.

Something that I'm missing, I guess.

[highplainsdem]

7. The New Zealand Herald story on this possibility, from last November:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=272&objectid=10412954

The Ross Ice Shelf, a massive piece of ice the size of France, could break off without warning causing a dramatic rise in sea levels, warn New Zealand scientists working in Antarctica.

...

Initial analysis of sea-floor cores near Scott Base suggest the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed in the past and had probably done so suddenly.

The team's co-chief scientist, Tim Naish, told The Press newspaper the sediment record was important because it provided crucial evidence about how the Ross Ice Shelf would react to climate change, with potential to dramatically increase sea levels.

...

In January, British Antarctic Survey researchers predicted that its collapse would make sea levels rise by at least 5m, with other estimates predicting a rise of up to 17m.

The temperature anomaly maps in the topic at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x95577

have been showing the ice shelf's surface temperature much higher than normal recently.

[BeFree]

9. Hoo Boy

That is a scary map. 18 degree c above historic levels around Antarctica? And it is winter down there.

Like it has been said,,, when the earth decides to change it does so dramatically.

[meow mix]

11. in addition to high surface temps, the entire sea has warmed..

1 degree in only 40 years, the next degree in perhaps half that amount of time.
lot of energy to do that...