Scientists believe the melting of all the ice in Antarctica is no longer a far-away possibility but a coming certainty. The magnitude of this event would be staggering.

The Antarctica ice sheet covers an area of approximately 14 million square miles (36.3 million square kilometers)—equivalent to the combined land area of the U.S. and Mexico. When the ice’s depth is considered, the total volume in Antarctica is approximately 7.2 million cubic miles (30 million cubic kilometers).

That ice has been packed in for eons. Over thousands of years, more and more ice has frozen on top. But industrialization has released greenhouse gas, and human activity has been brutal. Now, some scientists expect it to melt by 2060. To stop it, drastic action must be taken to reduce worldwide emissions. And if carbon emissions can’t be cut, a large-scale melting would be catastrophic.

Some of the consequences are obvious: rising sea levels and severe impacts on global climate and ecosystems. But other consequences of a potential ice melt apocalypse are just as deadly, too. In this list, you’ll learn about ten shocking things that could happen to the world if Antarctica’s ice melts in the next few decades.

10. Gravity Would Radically Shift

While it is clear that the melting of Antarctica’s ice would cause sea levels to rise, the process is more complex than simply adding that volume of newly-melted water to the oceans. According to data scientists, other downstream (pun intended) consequences would occur, too.

For one, the disappearance of the ice will most likely result in a shift in gravity. That alteration will cause some areas of land to expand and rise. This will mitigate the impact of the sea level rise, but it will still have other significant consequences. The exact effects on global sea levels and regional land movement are complex and not fully understood. However, scientists are concerned about the radical change. It would be a sudden and shocking jolt to Earth’s delicate ecosystem balance.

It turns out scientists have been studying this for decades. In 1875, researcher James Croll argued the melting of Antarctica’s ice would result in a very uneven sea rise. Scientists now know it as a “gravity effect.” Croll found sea levels near Antarctica would rise much less than the worldwide average. Meanwhile, the northern hemisphere would experience a sea level rise up to a third above the average. Subsequent calculations by other mathematicians have refined our understanding of the regional effects of melting ice on sea levels.

Still, the principle remains the same: Melting ice causes a shift in gravity that affects sea levels differently in various parts of the world. For example, ice melt in Greenland would actually create lower sea levels near that land mass and higher levels further south. These unequal distributions would make it difficult to safely move large populations of people inland away from rising tides, greatly exacerbating the issue.^[1]

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