# Melting ice-caps **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2001, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340 "2001-04-09T09:13:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![walor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@walor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/walor)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340/1 "2001-04-09T09:13:44Z")
Can anyone explain this conundrum to me please? Fill a pint glass with a mixture of ice-cubes and water to the very top. Leave it to stand until the ice cubes melt and the water level falls. Ergo, water expands when it turns to ice and vice-versa, it contracts when it melts. Using this principle, why would the melting of the polar ice-cap cause sea levels to rise? Surely they would fall as the ice melts and contracts… ---
**Author:** ![ryoushi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@ryoushi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryoushi)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340/2 "2001-04-09T09:18:08Z")
I believe it may have something to do with all the water frozen over landmasses. Antarctica comes to mind… think how much ice is stored _there_. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340/3 "2001-04-09T10:37:15Z")
I’m afraid i don’t have an answer for you (although **ryoushi’s** comment seems very sensible), but i did just pop in to say that i pondered over this for ages and no one i knew was able to give me a sensible answer. But now i feel at rest. ---
**Author:** ![ryoushi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@ryoushi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryoushi)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340/4 "2001-04-09T10:43:18Z")
I’ll find out how much ice is in Antarctica if you like, it’ll make disproving me easier. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![walor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@walor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/walor)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340/5 "2001-04-09T10:52:19Z")
Thanks ryoushi. I take your point about the ice on the land masses. However, which would melt first or quickest… the ice in/on the sea or that on the land? Also, if temperatures were to rise in general, so would evaporation and so presumably, more of the water would be in the sky as clouds. (How on earth would you go about establishing the amount of ice on Antarctica?) ---
**Author:** ![Ned](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@Ned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ned)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melting-ice-caps/61340/6 "2001-04-09T11:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > (How on earth would you go about establishing the amount of ice on Antarctica?) You would do a search on the net and quickly arrive at a statement like this: > [@](#): > > The total volume of ice on Antarctica is 30,109,800 cubic km, about 2.4% of which is in the form of ice shelves (11% of the surface area). The West Antarctic and East Antarctic Ice Sheets contain 11 and 86% of the total, respectively. Melted, Antarctic ice would contribute 66 meters to global sea level (that figure accounts for changes in salinity and for back-filling of the Antarctic continent with water once the ice is removed). Note that melting ice shelves does not increase sea level because the shelves are floating and thus displace a mass of water equivalent to their own mass.