Global warming has been having an impact on the entire planet in the form of hurricanes in the Atlantic and tsunamis in the Pacific. The Pacific Rim has become more active with increasing volcanic eruptions and seismic events. Geologists are warning that as the polar ice caps and glaciers melt seismic activity will increase in places that do not normally have such occurrences.

The extreme pressure on the earth created by the polar ice caps and their accompanying glaciers is being released at a rapid rate. Ice is extremely heavy and weighs about one ton per cubic meter. Geologic events in the form of volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and the undersea earthquakes that trigger tsunamis increase as the pressure is reduced by melting ice.

In an interview with the Canadian press, Patrick Wu, a geologist with the University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada, explained that the weight of the polar ice caps create an extreme amount of pressure upon the earth which suppresses geologic events. The release of that pressure is being felt across Canada in the form of increased earthquakes that will only continue. He used the analogy of adding extreme pressure to a basketball. When the pressure is released the ball will bounce back to its original shape. This is basically what is happening to the earth which is increasing the number of undersea landslides in Antarctica.

Bill McGuire, a geologist with University College, London, UK, explains in an article published in New Science Magazine that the melting ice caps are causing changes to the sea floor. Underwater landslides, which are the result of the release of pressure from melting glaciers, are causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other seismic events. While this has happened throughout the history of the earth, the frequency has increased with global warming.