[Greenbuilding] Climate breakdown is here. (polar ice melt)

[Eli Talking]

My understanding is the reason water ice has a higher volume than water liquid is that it entraps air in the crystal structure.  My hunch is that if you subtracted the volume of gas air within the ice structure, the volume of the water would be less than the liquid equivalent by weight.  

Eli 

From: Steven Tjiang 
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 11:55 AM
To: Green Building 
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Climate breakdown is here. (polar ice melt)

I don't think it's the ice in the water that will raise sea levels; It's all the ice that isn't in the water (i.e. Green land and Antarctica).  Also if the sea ice is melting it also likely the landlocked ice is also melting and thus adding more water to the "tub". 

---- Steve (KZ6LSD)



On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:47 AM, Joe Killian <kaa-ajk at sonic.net> wrote:

    Classic trick high school question:
    Fill a glass with ice, add water to the brim (top of ice will float higher).  Let it melt.  Does it overflow?
    Answer:  No.  The weight (mass) of water displaced by the floating ice is the same as  the weight of all the ice, which is also the same volume of the displaced water once melted.
    So melting sea ice doesn't raise (or lower) sea level.
    The fresh water added to the ocean, however, may well accelerate the feared effect of the melting Greenland ice adding fresh water to the North Atlantic and potentially (inevitably?) changing the course of the Gulf Stream.  Whereupon northern Europe's climate becomes more like Siberia's climate.
     Hang on....
  Joe



  On 8/29/2012 8:32 AM, Alan Abrams wrote:

    if salt water is more dense than fresh--then when the ice pack melts, does this not result in a rise in sea level?  No, wait, ice contracts when it melts.  But most of a floating mass of ice is submerged, and the volume of the exposed mass is equal to the increase in volume as a result of freezing...

    ...ouch.  my head hurts.

    -AA

    Alan Abrams
    Abrams Design Build LLC
    design for purposeful living

    6411 Orchard Avenue Suite 102
    Takoma Park, MD 20912
    office  301-270-NET- ZERO (301-270-6380)  
    fax      301-270-1466      
    cell     202-437-8583
    alan at abramsdesignbuild.com
    www.abramsdesignbuild.com


     

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