======Melting Ice and Rising Sea Levels======


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**Alternative titles:** Sea Ice vs Land Ice Experiment
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====Summary====                   
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====Procedure====  
  -Fill a clear container halfway with water.  
  -Add floating ice cubes to represent sea ice. Mark the water level and wait for the ice to melt. Record the water level again.  
  -In a separate setup, place ice cubes in a smaller cup or container above the water, so melting ice drips in like land ice. Mark the starting water level. When the ice melts, measure again.



====Links==== 
Melting Ice Experiment: Discover How Ice Impacts Sea Levels - TheDadLab: 
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Evidence for Climate Change: Melting Ice Demonstration - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics: 
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📄 See ice melting! - Scitech: [[https://www.scitech.org.au/experiment/what-is-causing-sea-levels-to-rise/]]\\

📄 How Melting Ice Causes Sea Level Rise - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: [[https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/resources/project/how-melting-ice-causes-sea-level-rise/]]\\

====Variations====
  *Add food coloring to help see the water level more clearly.  
  *Place small rocks or toys on “land” ice to represent glaciers melting.



====Safety Precautions====
  *Handle water carefully to avoid spills.  
  *If using glass containers, place them on a sturdy surface.




====Questions to Consider====
  *Why doesn’t melting sea ice raise sea levels? (Because it’s already floating, so it displaces the same volume of water.)  
  *Why does melting land ice raise sea levels? (It adds new water to the ocean that wasn’t there before.)  
  *How does this help explain global sea level rise? (Warming causes glaciers and ice sheets on land to melt, adding more water to the oceans.)