PLATE 8 During the last ice age, sea levels were approximately 100 m lower than present because more water was contained in ice sheets, and thus not available to the oceans. The dark blue shading around Florida and Southeast Asia demarcates areas that, while 20,000 years ago were dry land, are now under water. Sea levels would rise and flood coastal regions, to the approximate levels shown in the figure (dark green area), if the West Antarctic ice sheet or much of the Greenland ice sheet were to melt. The black line shows the present coast. SOURCE: Burroughs, 1999.