Sea Level, Ice, and Greenhouses -- FAQ
Prompted by a question from my daughter (prompted in turn by a TV kids programme) I found this paper to be an excellent source of what looks like authoritative information on ice-cap melting. It only looks at effects, not how the temperature change relates to carbon dioxide relates to % melt. I'll need to keep looking for that. The bottom line though is in the table below, assuming 100% melt. Size refers to rise in global sea level.
The players Size (approx) Speed (approx)
Sea Ice 0.4 cm years
Mountain Glaciers 10's cm decades
Thermal Expansion 20 cm per degree warming, per km of ocean warmed decades
West Antarctica 500 cm a few centuries
Greenland 500 cm several centuries
East Antarctica 7000 cm several centuries to millenia
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