Since the total mass of the ocean and ice remains unchanged during the melting process, this has often led to the erroneous assumption that sea level will be unaffected by the melting of floating ice, say geologists David Holland and Adrian Jenkins.

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Much global warming alarm centers upon concerns that melting glaciers will cause a disastrous sea level rise.

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To them, such a fate might have been more dramatic and plausible than the change in sea level that would have accompanied the melting and gradual retreat glacial icesheets.

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