Unbelievable Optical Illusions: How Your Eyes Can Deceive You

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The discussion centers around the misconception of how oil extraction and iceberg melting affect sea levels. It highlights that while oil is replaced with water underground, the volume is not significant enough to impact sea levels. The primary concern for rising sea levels is not melting icebergs, which are mostly submerged and do not change water levels when melted, but rather glaciers and ice sheets that are above sea level. The analogy of melting ice cubes in a glass of water is used to illustrate that the water level remains unchanged when ice that is already floating melts. Overall, the conversation clarifies that the dynamics of sea level rise are more complex than simply considering the melting of icebergs.
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Something has been bothering me for a while...

when we are removing oil from below the surface of the Earth and replacing it with water then how comes the sea levels are not falling?,

In fact i don't get this whole issue of the seas rising?, 95% of icebergs are under water, if you removed an iceberg and melted it the volume of water would be less than of ice, surely again melting icebergs reduce the levels!
 
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jph31 said:
when we are removing oil from below the surface of the Earth and replacing it with water then how comes the sea levels are not falling?

I'm not sure how many oil wells use this technique, but I don't think the volume of water we're talking about is all that much.

jph31 said:
In fact i don't get this whole issue of the seas rising?, 95% of icebergs are under water, if you removed an iceberg and melted it the volume of water would be less than of ice, surely again melting icebergs reduce the levels!

Not quite. If you melt an iceberg that's floating in water, the water level shouldn't change. But icebergs aren't the issue with rising sea levels. It's ice that's above sea level that's the concern-- things like glaciers.

DaveE
 
jph31 said:
95% of icebergs are under water, if you removed an iceberg and melted it the volume of water would be less than of ice, surely again melting icebergs reduce the levels!


Melting icebergs doesn't change any levels!
Try it with an ice cube in a glass of water.
 
I tried melting ice cubes in a glass of water. Admittedly, the water level does not change as we usually thought.




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tease your eyes
 
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