Ice Caps Melting

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "Ice Caps Melting." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper Title	Ice Caps Melting
# of Words	1414
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.66

Ice Caps Melting

[Category]:

Science

[Paper Title]:

Ice Caps Melting

[Text]:

The Ice Caps Melting

Are global warming and the greenhouse effect causing the ice to melt and the
sea levels to rise? Antarctica and Greenland hold a good population of the world’s
ice in the ocean. The article, “Answers to sea level rise locked in ice” by
Jack Williams of USA Today, describes what is happening with the polar ice caps,
and how it is going to effect the world. Williams compares the amount of ice in
Antarctica to the size of “USA’s 48 contiguous states and half of Mexico.”
Antarctica is a total of 5.4 million square miles. It has 91 percent of the
world’s ice and 70 percent of the globe’s fresh water. The worst-case
scenario would be all of Antarctica’s ice melting, which would raise the sea
level by about 200 feet. However, Antarctica is not said to become warm enough
to do this for well over hundreds of years.

Antarctica has two main sheets of ice that would pose a threat to the world:
the West Antarctic Ice Sheets and the East Antarctic Ice Sheets. Together the
East and the West ice sheets hold about 91 percent of the world’s glacial ice.
The west Antarctic ice sheet is south of the Pacific Ocean, and holds 11 percent
of the ice that sits on the continent, and is mostly below sea level. Therefore,
the west Antarctic ice sheet poses a bigger threat than the East because the
West’s bottom is mostly below the sea level. Every year ice spreads through
Antarctica and moves towards the edges. The ice from the West Antarctic sheets
moves mostly onto the Ross and Ronne ice shelves, which are floating on the
ocean. Williams says that if the shelves melt, it will cause large parts of the
ice-sheets to break off and melt into the sea. If the two ice sheets should melt
the sea level would rise 200-260 feet. This would endanger a large portion of
the population and reshape the world’s coastlines, as well as change the world’s
temperatures. The ice works as a cooling source for the world – without it the
summers would be increasingly hotter.

There are many scientists working in Antarctica trying to figure out how long
it will be for the ice sheets to collapse. There are satellites that can
determine the location of the ice and the ice’s pattern of movement. Drills
are also being used to look at the ice from the bottom up. This method allows
the scientists to see any changes in the ice due to the weather patterns that
have occurred over thousands of years ago. By stu...

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans	Credit Card	Check

1 month membership

3 month membership (You Save 50%)

6 month membership (You Save 67%)

Copyright © 2002-2007 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22