Floating ice equivalent to 1.5 million icebergs the size of the one that sank the Titanic are melting away each year, research has shown. The lost ice is only raising sea levels annually by a tiny fraction - about a hair's breadth across the world's oceans.
This is despite the fact that, according to Archimedes's principal, floating ice displaces its own volume of fluid and should not add more water when it melts. The melting icebergs cause sea levels spread evenly across the globe to rise by just 49 micrometres a year, about the width of a human hair.
At that rate, it would take 200 years for the oceans to rise by a centimetre and if all the floating ice was to melt sea levels would rise by only 4cm, according to scientists. If all the ice on land melted, it would raise the levels of oceans by 230ft.
Lead researcher Professor Andrew Shepherd, from the University of Leeds, said: 'Over recent decades there have been dramatic reductions in the quantity of Earth's floating ice, including collapses of Antarctic ice shelves and the retreat of Arctic sea ice. 'These changes have had major impacts on regional climate and, because oceans are expected to warm considerably over the course of the 21st century, the melting of floating ice should be considered in future assessments of sea level (Daily Mail)