Did you know?

• the Antarctic ice sheet is as expansive as the U.S with an average depth of almost 2 km amounting to more than 20 million cubic kilometers of ice,
• the global sea level could rise by 80 m if the Antarctic ice sheet melted,
• the energy stored in the ice cap (2.6 x 10²⁵ J) is about the same energy content as the upper ocean in Figure 11.15. Moreover, the phase transition of melting the ice cap could absorb a great deal of excess energy to mitigate climate changes
• the transfer of energy to the ice is small and the effects of the cryosphere are therefore relevant to climate changes occurring over periods of 1000s of years.