# melting ice at south pole **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147 "2019-10-02T13:22:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/1 "2019-10-02T13:22:46Z")
What was the earth like before Antarctica was covered with ice? What would happen if it did melt? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/2 "2019-10-02T14:01:29Z")
Your signature is the answer to the second question 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/3 "2019-10-02T14:49:47Z")
> **[What the World Would Look Like if All the Ice Melted](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/rising-seas-ice-melt-new-shoreline-maps)** > > If we keep burning fossil fuels indefinitely, global warming will eventually melt all the ice at the poles and on mountaintops, raising sea level by 216 feet. Explore what the world’s new coastlines would look like. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/4 "2019-10-02T15:10:23Z")
Antartica was ice free 34 million years ago when CO[sub]2[/sub] was 760 ppm -[New CO2 data helps unlock the secrets of Antarctic formation](https://phys.org/news/2009-09-co2-secrets-antarctic-formation.html) Current models have CO[sub]2[/sub] hitting 685 by 2050 [https://www.oecd.org/env/cc/Outlook%20to%202050\_Climate%20Change%20Chapter\_HIGLIGHTS-FINA-8pager-UPDATED%20NOV2012.pdf](https://www.oecd.org/env/cc/Outlook%20to%202050_Climate%20Change%20Chapter_HIGLIGHTS-FINA-8pager-UPDATED%20NOV2012.pdf) If all the ice melted sea levels would rise 3.2m [If all the ice in Antarctica were to melt, how much would global sea level rise? How quickly is this likely to happen? - AntarcticGlaciers.org](http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/question/ice-antarctica-melt-much-global-sea-level-rise-quickly-likely-happen/) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/5 "2019-10-02T16:20:35Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > If all the ice melted sea levels would rise 3.2m [If all the ice in Antarctica were to melt, how much would global sea level rise? How quickly is this likely to happen? - AntarcticGlaciers.org](http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/question/ice-antarctica-melt-much-global-sea-level-rise-quickly-likely-happen/) You didn’t read that page very thoroughly. You missed the last sentence of this paragraph: > [@](#): > > The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has a global eustatic sea level contribution of 3.2 m[1] – that is, if all the ice in this area melted, global sea level would rise by 3.2 m. The Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet would contribute 0.24 m to global sea level rise on full melting[2], and currently contributes 0.22±0.16 mm per annum. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet has a sea level equivalent of approximately 60 m. So 60 + 3.2 +.24 ~= 63.5 meters Add in the 6 meters or so of Greenland’s glaciers melting and it comes to around 70 meters total. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/6 "2019-10-02T16:32:14Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > You didn’t read that page very thoroughly. You missed the last sentence of this paragraph: > So 60 + 3.2 +.24 ~= 63.5 meters Good point. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/7 "2019-10-02T16:36:47Z")
The Earth has had polar ice on and off throughout its history. Conditions while polar ice caps have been either minimal or non-existent have varied quite a bit. At times, the Earth’s temperatures between the equator and the poles did not vary anywhere near as much as they do now. Basically, picture the area around the equator being roughly what it is now, temperature-wise, with the temperatures slowly cooling until they get to current mid-U.S./European temperatures up by the poles. The temperature gradient between the equator and the poles was much less severe than it is now. Also, picture Antarctica covered in trees. At other times, picture tropical weather at middle latitudes (palm trees growing in New York, for example), nice warm sub-tropic weather (basically Florida weather) up at the poles, and the area around the equator being so ungodly hot that a significant chunk of life on earth went extinct due to the heat. The former case isn’t so bad, but the latter case would make life on Earth fairly miserable for all. The latter case is basically the conditions during what is known as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (you can google that for more info), or PETM. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-at-south-pole/841147/8 "2019-10-02T20:02:58Z")
Thermal expansion also contributes to sea level rise. A National Geographic article states that about half of recent historic sea level rise is due to thermal expansion. I guess that might be proportionately less going forward, when ice sheets collapse. [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/)