Sea-Level Changes

Abstract

To the general public it seems a rather obvious fact that if the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland melted, sea level would rise. In fact, there is wide-spread concern that global warming of the Earth might induce melt of the present-day large ice sheets and thereby induce a global sea-level rise, leading to floodings of lowlands. Although the link between ice melt and sea-level rise might seem obvious, the relation between ice mass changes and sea-level variations is more complicated. It might sound strange when one first hears about it, but ice melt could actually induce a sea-level drop at some places on the Earth’s surface. And perhaps it is even more surprising that this has been known for more than a century.