What Earth Would Look Like If All The Ice Melted

November 5,2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Without Cities Shown

Courtesy National Geographic.

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Stories about the loss of Arctic sea ice and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet have become commonplace in our warming world, but have you ever wondered what the planet would look like if all of it – every last mountain glacier and chunk of polar ice – melted for good?
National Geographic explored this exact scenario in a newly released set of artists' renderings of how Earth's coastlines would look if sea levels worldwide rose by 216 feet, the volume the magazine estimates is possible if all of the ice now on land melts away into the ocean.
The illustrations show what every continent in the world would look like in this scenario, with all of the world's current 5 million cubic miles of ice melted (which scientists say would take more than 5,000 years). From Houston, New Orleans, and Miami to Charleston, New York, and Boston – if this came to pass, all of them would be wiped off the map forever.
See the interactive maps for "If All The Ice Melted" at National Geographic.

MORE: Glaciers in Retreat

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Plateau Glacier, St. Elias Mountains (1961)

Both photos were taken from the shore of Wachusett Inlet in Alaska's Saint Elias Mountains. The Sept. 1961 photo shows the lower reaches of Plateau Glacier, then about 115 feet above tidewater. After 42 years, the glacier had retreated by nearly 2 miles. (R.D. Karpilo/National Park Service)