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Comment by hansbo | Hacker News Reader

I don't think the comparison with the surrounding land mass is relevant here. The landmass might have a much larger effect than the ice, but the landmass will not melt. While my mental image considers the water to envelop the world as a sphere, I actually have no idea how large the differences in the distance from the core to the water surface is in different parts of the world.

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> I actually have no idea how large the differences in the distance from the core to the water surface is in different parts of the world

Taking the core to be a point, the distance to the sea's surface would depend on factors such as

* The earth’s variation from a pure sphere (6,378.137 km (3,963.191 mi) at the Equator and 6,356.752 km (3,949.903 mi) at the poles) [0, 1]

* The local depth of the sea (up to 10,984 metres for the Mariana Trench [2])

* Tidal effects [3]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spheroid

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_the_Earth

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Trench

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide

And, I suppose, the centripetal force caused by the rotation. But maybe that is the whole reason for earth being a spheroid?

And correct me if I'm wrong, but the local depth of the sea should not matter, as water would fill the depth before the levels stabilized. But perhaps the local volume of the water affects the size of the effects of tidal forces and local land mass.

Mostly related to your line of inquiry, the point on land that is furthest from the center of the Earth is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.[1] It is located one degree south of the equator and is very tall to begin with.

[1] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/highestpoint.html

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