Ice Budgets for Antarctica and Changes in Sea-Level

Abstract

Eight different ice budgets for the Antarctic Ice Sheet are examined. Five of these budgets call for rates of increase of the ice which are in surprisingly good agreement considering the wide dispersion of individual components of the budgets. The observed rise in sea-level of the world’s oceans would appear to contradict the removal of water required to nourish the Antarctic Ice Sheet at the claimed rates. The thermal expansion of oceanic columns, caused by “climatic” warming of the oceans, has been invoked to resolve this contradiction but it appears that this is not large enough judging from the 30 yr. difference in water temperatures measured by the Meteor and the Crawford in two profiles across the tropical Atlantic Ocean.