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The Environment / Sea Level Increase, Ice Melt. Where does the water go?
« on: 22/06/2009 13:30:24 »
Hi
I would be grateful for a bit of peer review of a few thoughts on sea level increase based on meltwater from Greenland. I've expanded on this on my own blog: http://solarkent.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/uk-climate-sea-level-rise/ but in summary:
The mass of ice on Greenland goes some part to define where the centre of gravity is on the Earth (A sphere hanging in space subject to its own gravity- okay I know we are orbiting etc.) As this ice melts, surely it will remain as a mass of water with its highest point in the region of Greenland, effectively very slightly re-shaping the sphere but retaining the centre of gravity where it is. To assume it will flow in some way towards the Pacific seems to assume that the work is flat.
So, when talking about average sea level increase due to the Greenland ice melt, surely we should calculate this based on the increase remaining local to Greenland.
This implies that the North American Eastern Coast is at greater risk, also Europe but to a lesser extent!
I would be grateful for a bit of peer review of a few thoughts on sea level increase based on meltwater from Greenland. I've expanded on this on my own blog: http://solarkent.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/uk-climate-sea-level-rise/ but in summary:
The mass of ice on Greenland goes some part to define where the centre of gravity is on the Earth (A sphere hanging in space subject to its own gravity- okay I know we are orbiting etc.) As this ice melts, surely it will remain as a mass of water with its highest point in the region of Greenland, effectively very slightly re-shaping the sphere but retaining the centre of gravity where it is. To assume it will flow in some way towards the Pacific seems to assume that the work is flat.
So, when talking about average sea level increase due to the Greenland ice melt, surely we should calculate this based on the increase remaining local to Greenland.
This implies that the North American Eastern Coast is at greater risk, also Europe but to a lesser extent!