P3_4 Melting the Antarctic Ice

Abstract

 

The melting of the polar ice caps is widely discussed; this article considers the repercussions of the ice shelf in Antarctica melting and the prospect of using an array of lasers to do so. The energy required to melt the 3 x 107km3 of ice was found to be 1.12 x 1025J, it was found to take 22.2 hours for an array of 1.4 x 1011 lasers to melt the ice. The melting of this much ice would cause the sea level to rise 77m above its current level.