Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Not-Quite-Science Forum Earths Water in a Ball

Basic physics pressure is per square area.

Changing the area doesn't change the problem divid the mass by the volume it sits on. If you are saying the thickness on the glaciers is thinner per square meter than the mainland then maybee it's not an indicator.

To explain above you let air out of car tyres to drive on beaches so the tyre spreads out the load and it doesn't sink into the sand very similar problem to what you are looking at. Weight per area is the key thing not total weight.

Again I am no expert on geology I am simply applying simple physics principles and what I would have natively guessed should happen wiki says does.

There may be mechanisms I do not undertsand if so explain away.

To me this is like a classic ice block problem when put out on table initially the melt rate increases but eventually it slows down and declines because you start running out of surface area on the iceblock to keep up the melt rate increase. The more the iceblock melts and smaller it becomes the less surface area it has.

So taking that to greenland what i would expect happen if what you suggest happened the melt rate would initially increase then level and decrease and the instantaneous glacial rebound should do the same.