Re:Nasa Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Tha...
by partiallypro on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @11:46AM
(#19683580)
I was under the impression that the biggest contributor is actually just the rising temperature of the water, because water expands as it heats.
Re:Nasa Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Tha...
by Tomminn on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @07:38PM
(#19687378)
The average depth of the ocean is about 4km, so a thermal expansion of 1x10^(-4) per degree C (right order of magnitude), would result in about a 4m rise per degree increase in average ocean temperature. Which is obviously significant.
One of the issues with this theory is that the average temperature of the ocean is below 4 deg C, and in this regime the coefficient of expansion is negative. So we might actually see a small sea level drop due to ocean warming.
Re:Nasa Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Tha...
by fullarr on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @01:09PM
(#19684397)
While there is probably a slight amount of expansion in liquid water from heat, water expands most when frozen solid. this is the entire reason ice floats
Re:Nasa Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Tha...
by partiallypro on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @01:53PM
(#19684836)
Half of all recent sea level rises have been from thermal expansion of water: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warmin...
Yet according to JPL, the main cause of this is believed to be volcanic activity under the western side of the continent. [0]
The best quote from the article was this: "I didn't see how we could have that amount of heat and still have ice on top of it."
[0] - https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6996