Sea level rise caused by the melting of mountain and subpolar glaciers
Another process that results in rising sea levels is the addition of water mass from land ice. Melting glaciers and ice caps, as well as the vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, raise sea-levels if their water mass enters the ocean as melted water or icebergs (Pritchard et al. 2009, Steig et al. 2009, Velicogna 2009). Furthermore, it is estimated that melting of tropical glaciers (most of them are considered small) could cause an increase in sea level of less than 0.1mm, but melting of all the world mountain glaciers would produce an increase of 24 cm and the melting of ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica would produce 0.72 m sea level rise (CAN, 2007).
Year: 2010
From collection: Vital Climate Change Graphics for Latin America and the Caribbean (2010)
Cartographer: Viktor Novikov, UNEP/GRID-Arendal