QUESTION:
How big would Antarctica be if all of the snow and ice 
melted away?

        Mrs. Young's Class
        Lake Forest Elementary School
        Lake Forest, CA

ANSWER from Scott Borg,  Program Director                                 
            Office of Polar Programs
            Antarctic Geology & Geophysics Program        
            National Science Foundation
            Wed, 5 Mar 1997 13:49:18 -0500


Dear Students,

This is not a simple question to answer.  I'll divide the answer up a bit to
address each of the major parts of Antarctica.  

Antarctica is divided into two three main parts, East Antarctica (the
largest part, mainly in the eastern hemisphere), West Antarctica (the
smaller lobe, in the western hemisphere), and the Antarctic Peninsula
(extends off from West Antarctica toward South America).  

If the ice melted quickly, then East Antarctica would be mainly above sea
level with a couple of large shallow embayments in the part that is south of
Australia.  The average elevation of the land area would only be about
200-500 meters compared to the average elevation of over 2500 meters now.
West Antarctica would consist of an archipelago of islands, with
concentrations of islands in the region of Marie Byrd Land and the Ellsworth
Mountains - Whitmore Mountains region.  The Antarctic Peninsula would be a
lond skinny island (no longer a peninsula connected to West Antarctica),
with many fjords and islands (much like is is now but without ice). 

Because the ice weighs so much, the continental crust beneath the ice is
pressed down quite a large amount, up to a kilometer in the central part of
East Antarctica.  If the ice were removed, then the crust would start to
"rebound" upward.  This would eliminate much of the embayments in East
Antarctica and would make many more and larger islands in West Antarctica.
It would also make the continental shelf areas much shallower than they are
now.  This process of post-glacial rebound would occur over several
thousands of years, but it would begin as the ice sheet thinned.

So, to answer your question, if all the ice were to melt, and you allowed
time for glacial rebound, I would estimate that the land area would be only
about 60% of the land area now.  Most of that land would be in East
Antarctica whereas West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula would be
groups of islands.

You may want to look at a map of subglacial bedrock that was published in
the Antarctic Glaciological and Geophysical Folio by the Scott Polar
Research Institute.  

Also, check out the following web site, especially if you have red-blue
glasses made for viewing "3-D" images.
http://TerraWeb.wr.usgs.gov/TRS/projects/Antarctica/stereo/

I hope this helps.
Cheers, Scott