# Ice cap melting

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cap-melting/298495>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 8, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cap-melting/298495 "2005-04-08T23:29:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cap-melting/298495/1 "2005-04-08T23:29:23Z")

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If both of Earth’s ice caps melted entirely, how much land would be engulfed in the resulting overflow?

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cap-melting/298495/2 "2005-04-08T23:47:47Z")

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Not nearly as much as the film “Waterworld” would make you believe.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cap-melting/298495/3 "2005-04-08T23:58:08Z")

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Although estimates vary, one estimate is that, if the Antarctic icecap were to melt entirely, mean sea level would rise about 73 meters (240 ft). If Greenland melted as well, there would be a rise of an additional 7 meters (23 ft). So lets say about 80 m (260 ft) or so.

It should be pointed out that not even the most extreme global warming predictions suggest anything like this degree of melting within the next few centuries.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cap-melting/298495/4 "2005-04-09T00:23:57Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Although estimates vary…

One of the reasons the estimates vary is that the extent to which the ice sheets have depressed the land under them, and raised the land around them is not well known, nor is the rate at which [isostacy](http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/isostasy1/) will be restored once the glaciers melt.

> [@](#):
>
> The northern Baltic Sea is rising nearly one centimeter a year. This may not sound like much, but it accumulates at up to 10 cm (4 inches) per decade, one meter (about 40 inches) per century, and so on! In order for isostatic equilibrium to be achieved, Hudson Bay still needs to rebound as much as 150 m. The amount of residual rebound, coupled with low and declining rates of recovery, imply that the lithosphere may not completely reach equilibrium within itself before the next glacial episode.