But the thing is: All the water that exists now is the same amount that was around during the beginning of earth. When the glaciers extended down from the poles where did the water come from? Did continents sink? There was a story in the news how this one island in the Marshal’s was being covered by water due to climate warming. None of the other islands were being covered. The island was sinking. Water is not being created. We have the same amount since creation.
“Water is not being created. We have the same amount since creation”
The amount is the same, the distribution is different. Placing water on land (in the form of ice) reduces the amount of ocean water lowering the sea level.
Where did the water come from when the glaciers extended from the poles? It came from all over the place...its called the hydrological cycle. Water evaporated from the land...from plants...from lakes...but mostly from the oceans. It turned into water vapor...and into clouds...and fell as snow...and got locked into glaciers.
Once it was locked into glaciers THAT WATER was not FREE to be a part of the hydrological cycle any longer...but the cycle continued. So the sea level fell. It was like writing a check out of a checking account when you have no deposits. The balance dwindles.
Let me explain this by going to the extreme absurdity: Suppose we get hundreds of massive heated pipes and suck water out of the oceans and pump this water to the south pole. There...the water freezes. The water we pump out of the ocean will STAY at the south pole and just as if you are siphoning off a can of water...the sea level of the ocean will drop if we did this long enough...and we would have a massive sheet of ice 10 or 100's of miles thick at the south pole.
Right?
The sea level could not stay the same if we removed water from the ocean and froze it in Antarctica. That's what happens in an ice age...even though we are still dealing with the same amount of water...its just in a different form (solid...not liquid).
Now...what if we take giant blow torches to our ice? It melts...and rivers of liquid water flows back into the southern ocean...and the sea levels rise again.
Get it?
Several thousand years ago, during the last ice age, sea levels were lower, so much lower so that a land bridge formed between Alaska and Russia. It is commonly thought that this land bridge was the origin of the American Indians.
After the ice age ended, the ice that covered North America (and Eurasia) melted, sea levels increased, and Russia and Alaska were separated by the Bering Strait