Reply #13: These do occur

[Tims]

The calving of icebergs do indeed cause massive waves, but they tend to be small compared to seismic induced waves and only effect areas fairly near the point where the break occurs. This occurs with significant frequency around the small coastal fishing communities in Alaska, Canada and Norway often causing considerable damage.

Floating ice could indeed produce a wave. This collision could cause an enormous displacement of water even though the ice would return to it's original displacement after the shock subsides. Think of it like this: a beach ball will only displace a small amount of water when it is floating undisturbed in a swimming pool, but if you hit it with a sledge hammer, its going to displace a large amount of water, even if only for a short time.

The significant point about floating ice displacement is that as floating ice melts, the oceans don't rise since they don't displace any more water frozen than melted. Oceans rise as glaciers melt and they indeed are melting. The vast majority of land locked ice is on the Antarctic continent, and the beak up and melting of sea ice there is just a prelude to the melting of its massive glaciers.