Title: Climate change, melting ice and sea level rise — Science Learning Hub
Headings: Climate change, melting ice and sea level rise
Climate change, melting ice and sea level rise
Land ice – glaciers, ice shelves and ice sheets
Sea ice
Melting ice and sea level rise
Thermal expansion and sea level rise
Climate change – additional implications
Nature of science
Activity ideas
Collection of related content
Useful links

Content: Sea ice has a light-coloured surface and reflects some of the sunlight that hits it. When sea ice melts, it exposes the darker sea surface, which absorbs solar energy ( heat ). This causes further temperature rises and causes more ice to melt. Thermal expansion and sea level rise
Warming seawater also causes sea level rise. Water expands when it warms up – heat energy makes its molecules move around more and take up more space. Because the molecules are more spread out, the density decreases. Climate change – additional implications
The ocean is a complex and continuous body of water that covers two-thirds of our planet. Melting land and sea ice affect many of the properties that drive the ocean’s chemical, physical and biological processes. Read about the properties – and the impacts climate change will cause – in the articles Ocean temperature, Ocean density, Ocean salinity and Ocean motion (currents and circulation). Nature of science
For most of history, the only way to study sea ice was through fieldwork.