Could Rising Oceans Affect Tectonic Plates

a reply to: seagull

If WIKI can be believed...

Antarctica has 26.5 million cubic km of ice[2] (6.36 million cubic miles of ice)

en.wikipedia.org...

and

Greenland has 2,850,000 cubic kilometres (684,000 cu mi)

en.wikipedia.org...

So, I'd say Antarctica has the most ice for your whiskey and water.

a reply to: masqua

Obviously I was mistaken... I wonder what I read? Have to see if I can't find that article again... Damn clearing all my bookmarks...

a reply to: seagull

Antarctica has more ice than Greenland.

But in the current climate period, the risk of Greenland's melting is pretty high relative to Antarctica, so the amount of ice at risk may well be comparable between the two. And the way that the ocean currents work, Greeland's melting may have a more significant influence on climate change, as it's believed that the northern Atlantic is quite critical.

(Climate change means more than just global warming, it is some of the consequences from global warming).

It's know to be the case, such as the end of the last ice age.
a reply to: bucsarg

As the ice retreats relieving pressure on those plates, it causes the water levels to rise, which is another point of pressure on the Earth’s crust. Keep in mind that the plates underneath the oceans are more fragile than land-based plates. Taking that into consideration, you can see that it’s not going to take much extra mass to cause seismic instability. Every square mile of water that is one meter deep is nearly 6 billion pounds. Sure, the waters haven’t risen that much, but consider any additional height is going to add billions of pounds of extra mass into the oceans and the level of the water rising isn’t going to be the same throughout the globe. Some areas are going to experience more sea level rise than others. That’s more pressure on certain areas which would heighten the seismic activity.

Think about your average volcano sticking out of the ocean. It may have 100 square miles (10x10 miles) where added mass could have some effect. So if the sea level around that volcano is increased by one meter then the amount of newly-introduced weight affecting that volcano is 570 billion pounds. If it was 99% of the way to blowing its top already then that might just be plenty to push it over the edge. The same is true of faults, except their area is often much larger.

When ice melts it relieves pressure on the earth's crust and extra sea level rise adds pressure to the thin continental shelf. Both create seismic instability.