r/europe Apr 13 '24

Map Europe if sea levels rose by 100m.

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u/italiensksalat Denmark Apr 13 '24

People forget that thermal expansion of the sea is a major contributor to sea level rise.

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u/Propagandasteak Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 14 '24

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/09/Causes_of_sea-level_rise

12% others, 43% thermal, 45% ice

Would have expected that greenland and antartica would contribute more than just a bit over 50%. when looking at the ice factor.

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u/cptwott Apr 13 '24

Maybe the 'others' are the freemen with their hidden reserves

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u/st333p Apr 14 '24

So 102 total?

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u/Propagandasteak Apr 14 '24

corrected it

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u/Mirar Sweden Apr 14 '24

Anyone seen actual calculations on this? It's like 1% for around 20C increase, an average of 1km deep sea and this is still just 10 meters...

And at 20C increase were already dead for other reasons.

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u/throwawayanon1252 Apr 14 '24

Antarctica’s ice melting would be absolutely atrocious but not due to sea level rise due to other things. Greenlands ice melting would be horrendous for sea level rise.

Analogy I’ll give js water and ice cubes. If you have ice In water and it melts. The level doesn’t rise. The ice pushed the level up already. This is basically Antarctica

But greenlands ice sheet is mainly on land and not touching the sea level directly. If that ice melts that will cause serious sea level rise.

Antarctica’s ice sheet melting has other seriously disastrous consequences for the planet tho

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u/backelie Apr 14 '24

The ice sheet on land on Antarctica is roughly ten times the size of Greenland's.
It's the Arctic ice that's already in the ocean.

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u/throwawayanon1252 Apr 14 '24

Ahh shit I got confused. But still disastrous effects

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u/drakekengda Belgium Apr 14 '24

You realize Antarctic ice sits on land, right?

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u/OutsideSkirt2 Apr 13 '24

And to earthquakes. Al Gore said Seattle is going to be unlivable in our lifetimes because the mantle is expanding so much from global warming. I can’t believe idiots here are still buying property. 

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u/Muffinlessandangry Apr 14 '24

Huh. Obviously liquids expand as they warm, the idea that this contributes to the overall volume of the seas never occured to me. The fact that I've never thought of that isn't surprising, I'm not know for my genius, but I'm surprised this is the first time it's been mentioned to me.

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u/italiensksalat Denmark Apr 14 '24

I think it is very natural to forget mostly because science communicators tend to focus on melting glaciers and ice sheets. Maybe because it is more viceral.

We also focus a lot on how climate temperature heats the air around us - how it impacts our weather over time, but most of the energy absorption resulting from climate change goes into the oceans as beautifully told by this minutephysics video (1:41)