Hi James, While I think that your first point is essentially true, the second point assumes that the whole of the earth is covered with water, when only 2/3 of the earth's surface is water. Further, most of the ice locked up in the arctic and antarctic ice caps sits above sea level. Thus, as ice calves from those repositories, they add to the ocean. The amount of ice locked up in those polar caps is staggering, though I don't know the numbers. Further, I don't know whether there is enough to actuate a change even when correcting for the terrestrial surface subtracted from the sphere used in your calculations. In short, I neither agree nor disagree with what you have said, only offering some corrective calculations. :-) I'll let the experts argue your points.
Best, Brian James T. Conklin wrote: >Inconvenient Facts regarding rising ocean level: > >1. The ocean level is unchanged when floating ice melts. > >2. The ocean is a spherical body of water. The ocean volume varies as >the cube of the ocean radius. Therefore, for the ocean radius to increase >20 feet, the ocean volume must increase 8,000 times more than for a 1-foot >radius increase. For the ocean radius to increase 40 feet, the ocean >volume must increase 64,000 times more than for a 1-foot radius increase. > > > > -- L. Brian Patrick Ph.D. candidate Department of Biological Sciences Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 USA e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
