h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can the learned people who developed this site shed light on something I read, I think it was in the Guardian a few years ago, that if the polar icecap goes, this could have a subtle an unexpected effect on the Earth's crust.

That is: (if I understand the reasoning properly) at present there is a dead weight of millions of tons of ice pressing downwards on the Earth's crust.

This dead weight is now melting back to water. When it all goes, the top of the planet is relieved of this weight, like taking a paperweight off a rubber ball. The crust will therefore sproing several thousand feet upwards at this point. According to this theory, as the crust of the planet is not THAT elastic, there will be a compensatory effect elsewhere which will suddenly and catastrophically pull a low-lying area of the earth, currently only just above water, a few thousand feet downwards.

Favourites for being deluged are the zero-or-below sea level areas bordering the North Sea, ie Denmark, Holland and the East Anglian region of Britain. According to the Guardian article, goodbye to Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire with virtually their entire populations. (And when this kicks off, it could aparently happen in a matter of hours)

So... any truth in this apocalyptic scenario? Love to know!

Hmm, not sure about that, but I'm not really one of your 'learned people'. All I can say is that when it 'springs' upwards it will do it in quickly - in geological time. Or millennia in our time. Northern Britain is still rising slowly due to the load from the last ice age being removed. I believe this does cause a slight sinking effect in the south, but I'd wait until someone more knowledgeable comes along .

This is only an uneducated guess but...

If arctic ice cap melts the only effect would be a small rise in sea level - it is frozen water floating on water - The earths crust would not be affected.

If all the antarctic ice melts: Get ready to evolve quickly. Gills and fins might be a good idea.

Above all DON'T PANIC.

Just seen this in recently updated convos.
The ice at the poles attracts water around it, do if the ice caps were to melt the sea levels around it could actually drop in places within a certain distance of the ice cap. Hope that makes sense if not say