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I'm thinking of creating a world in which sea levels have risen by around 200 metres, leading the Earth's surface to look something like this, minus the ice:

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Obviously, a 200 metre rise is enormous, and probably not even feasible with man-made global warming alone. What could cause such a dramatic rise in sea levels, in under a few million years? Additionally, does anyone know how much of an increase in global temperature this would entail?

SealBoi
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  • Presumably when you say "what could cause this" you don't just want an answer like "melt all the ice"? – Starfish Prime Feb 16 '20 at 14:11
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    @StarfishPrime Yes - rather I mean what would cause the melting of all the ice. – SealBoi Feb 16 '20 at 14:32
  • @SealBoi Global Warming seems like as good a cause as any. – Halfthawed Feb 16 '20 at 14:48
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    @Halfthawed Well, the globe has to warm of course, but even the worst-case predictions for man-made sea level rise do not exceed 60 metres. For 200, there would have to be a partially naturalistic explanation I think. – SealBoi Feb 16 '20 at 14:53
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    Many ideas here: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/115597/how-fast-can-i-flood-the-netherlands-entirely-and-permanently – Willk Feb 16 '20 at 15:05
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    Check out Clive Cussler's The Rising Sea. In it, he states that the quantity of water trapped within the earth's crust far exceeds that on the surface. (I have no idea if that is true, but he made it sound plausible in this light fiction) In his story, undersea mining accidentally punctured a pressurized pocket of water leading to rapid sea level rises and changes in ocean salinity. – Henry Taylor Feb 16 '20 at 15:20
  • @SealBoi: What would cause it? Burn a lot of fossil fuels, thus adding lots of CO2 to the atmosphere, and it WILL happen. (The predictions you're looking at are for just 50-100 years ahead: few people dare to look further.) – jamesqf Feb 16 '20 at 18:33
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    @jamesqf Well the problem is that there isn't enough ice on the planet to raise sea levels by more than 70 metres. – SealBoi Feb 16 '20 at 18:36
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    @jamesqf: The problem is that even if all the ice melted the sea won't raise more than 100 meters or so. There is simply not enough water on Earth to raise the sea level 200 meters. – AlexP Feb 16 '20 at 19:30

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