A. 4 inches (10 cm) not is correct.

Antarctica has been losing more than 24 cubic miles (100 cubic km) of ice per year since 2002, according to data collected by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite, a joint project by NASA and the German Aerospace Center.

If you were to take the roughly 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic km) of melt water generated by Antarctica's glaciers since 2002 and spread it evenly over the entire United States (an area of about 3.794 million square miles, or 9.827 million square km), or similarly sized China (3.706 million square miles, or 9.597 million square km), it would rise to a height of 4 inches, according to calculations by Gernot Wagner of the Environmental Defense Fund.

That is just enough to get people's heels wet in the world's two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. Poured into a mold the size of Brazil (3.288 million square miles, or 8.515 million square km), Antarctic melt water would rise to a slightly higher level of 4.62 inches (11.74 cm).

B. 12 inches (30 cm) is not correct.

India — with its area of 1.269 million square miles (3.287 million square km) — would be covered by water to a depth of 12 inches (30.48 cm) if a decade of Antarctica's ice melt were poured uniformly over its entire territory.

C. 93 inches (236 cm) is correct.

California is America's third-largest state by area, covering 163,969 square miles (423,970 square km), and its largest by population. Antarctic's melt water volume of 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic km) over the past decade yields an average melt water height of approximately 93 inches (236 cm) in our California Jell-O mold.

At that level, roughly equal to the height of Paul Sturgess, the world's tallest professional basketball player, one would have to be standing on a pretty tall pedestal to avoid getting wet.

D. 110 inches (280 cm) is not correct.

The melt water from the Antarctic would rise to a level of 110 inches (280 cm) if it were poured into a mold the size of Germany, which covers 137,852 square miles (357,022 square km). That country is not only the biggest economy in the European Union, but also its biggest carbon dioxide emitter.

Flat plains cover much of northern Germany and its low-lying neighbor to the west, the Netherlands, whose major urban centers like Amsterdam and Rotterdam lie only a few feet above sea level at present. In a catastrophic scenario in which much of the Antarctica's western and eastern ice sheets melted, ocean heights around the world would likely rise by anywhere from 16 feet (4.9 meters) to 170 feet (51.8 meters), enough to dramatically reshape coastal regions ringing the world's oceans.