Is Antarctica rising?

With the increased flow of glaciers accompanied by the seperation of huge ice shelves from the coastline, could the Antarctic landmass be rising?

The weight of the ice has got to be lightening somewhat and that should produce a lifting eventually.
So, at what point would this upward pressure begin to show upon the tectonic plates surrounding it?

Looking at the plate structures acting upon the Antarctic plate, I could imagine things like the India plate movement as the Australian plate pushed up onto it.

Maybe I'm all wet, but I didn't know where to go to find the info I'm sure is 'out there'. So, I'm asking...whaddya think?

Originally posted by masqua
With the increased flow of glaciers accompanied by the seperation of huge ice shelves from the coastline, could the Antarctic landmass be rising?

The weight of the ice has got to be lightening somewhat and that should produce a lifting eventually.
So, at what point would this upward pressure begin to show upon the tectonic plates surrounding it?

Looking at the plate structures acting upon the Antarctic plate, I could imagine things like the India plate movement as the Australian plate pushed up onto it.

Maybe I'm all wet, but I didn't know where to go to find the info I'm sure is 'out there'. So, I'm asking...whaddya think?

I read something a while ago.. suffice it to say it will take millions of years for Antartica to respond to any loss of ice weight, but it *will* happen (assuming a noticable amount of ice melts).

Regards,

Osiris

Originally posted by otlg27
I read something a while ago.. suffice it to say it will take millions of years for Antartica to respond to any loss of ice weight, but it *will* happen (assuming a noticable amount of ice melts).

Wrong, it takes very little time after pressure is decreased.

Little over 10 000 years ago Finland was under couple kilometers of ice.
And now crust has already risen enough that uplifting is now only 1 cm/year even in those places which were under ice longest, on most parts of country uplifting is under 0.5 cm/year.

But in this case uplifting would take much longer time because crust would have to rise much bigger amount.
And it doesn't cause continental shifting.

E_T:

You are right, I meant respond fully.. not start responding.. my bad for not being clear.

Osiris