What Happens If All The Ice Melted On Earth

90 percent of the fresh ice on Earth is located in Greenland and Antarctica. Every year, a portion of those ice will melt into the sea. Normally, the ice will take hundreds to thousands of years to melt but what if all of a sudden those ice melted right away in one night?

While we sleep, the sea level will increase to a staggering 66 meters in height. Most cities situated near the ocean such as New York, Shanghai, and London will sink under a devastating flood. Next, this will force 40 percent of the world's population to leave their home and seek refuge.

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Even though this unfortunate event will cause damage to land, the same thing will also happen to the ocean. The rising seawater will invade the freshwater underground and this will affect the water source as well as the water cooling system.

Not just that, the ice on Greenland and Antarctica is mostly comprised of freshwater. Therefore, as it melts, around 69 percent of the world's freshwater will move into the ocean. This will cause chaos to the flow of the sea and not to mention the weather.

For example, the Gulf stream - the strength of the ocean's current will cause global warming in northern Europe. This particular seawater can function that way due to the density of the ocean water from the Arctic. The flood from the freshwater will delay the current to the extent that there will be no current at all.

Without any warm air, the temperature in northern Europe will ultimately drop resulting in a new ice age. You can also imagine if 1 percent of ice not from Greenland or Antarctica melts. A part of the 1 percent is situated on the land of Earth such as the ice in the Himalayas.

This will cause a big threat as the substance trapped inside the glacier is a very toxic chemical like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). Scientists found out that glaciers similar to the Himalayas are able to store this substance for decades long. But if the glaciers melt, these toxic substances will be released into the river, lakes, and underground reservoirs poisoning those areas.

The rest of the 1 percent ice can be found in tundra-like the Artic. Sometimes this ice is also known as permafrost which is land that is always covered in ice in the Arctic. One of the big problems that we will face is the poisonous mercury if the permafrost melts.

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It is estimated that 15 million gallons of mercury are kept inside the Arctic permafrost. That amount is almost the same amount found in other places around the world. Aside from that, organic matter in permafrost is considered food for microorganisms.

The gas like carbon dioxide and methane produced by these microorganisms after consuming the organic matter will be released causing a greenhouse effect. Scientists estimated that this will increase the greenhouse effect by two times in the atmosphere and increase the global temperature by 3.5 degrees Celcius(38 degrees Fahrenheit).

It may not sound much but these will cause devastating droughts all around. The excess water vapor in the atmosphere will result in typhoons and immense floods everywhere. All the big cities near the beach will be left behind and most probably that people will migrate to countries like Canada, Alaska, and the Arctic.