Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 10/28/2009 2:34:39 PM PDT by decimon
PHILADELPHIA –- An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating. Researchers found 20th-century sea-level rise to be three times higher than the rate of sea-level rise during the last 500 years. In addition, this jump appears to occur between 1879 and 1915, a time of industrial change that may provide a direct link to human-induced climate change.
The results appear in the current issue of the journal Geology.
The rate of relative sea-level rise, or RSLR, during the 20th century was 3 to 3.3 millimeters per year, higher than the usual rate of one per year. Furthermore, the acceleration appears consistent with other studies from the Atlantic coast, though the magnitude of the acceleration in North Carolina is larger than at sites farther north along the U.S. and Canadian Atlantic coast and may be indicative of a latitudinal trend related to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
Understanding the timing and magnitude of this possible acceleration in the rate of RSLR is critical for testing models of global climate change and for providing a context for 21st-century predictions.
"Tide gauge records are largely inadequate for accurately recognizing the onset of any acceleration of relative sea-level rise occurring before the 18th century, mainly because too few records exist as a comparison," Andrew Kemp, the paper's lead author, said. "Accurate estimates of sea-level rise in the pre-satellite era are needed to provide an appropriate context for 21st-century projections and to validate geophysical and climate models."
The research team studied two North Carolina salt marshes that form continuous accumulations of organic sediment, a natural archive that provides scientists with an accurate way to reconstruct relative sea levels using radiometric isotopes and stratigraphic age markers. The research provided a record of relative sea-level change since the year 1500 at the Sand Point and Tump Point salt marshes in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system of North Carolina. The two marshes provided an ideal setting for producing high-resolution records because thick sequences of high marsh sediment are present and the estuarine system is microtidal, which reduces the vertical uncertainty of aleosea-level estimates. The study provides for the first time replicated sea-level reconstructions from two nearby sites.
In addition, comparison with 20th-century tide-gauge records validates the use of this approach and suggests that salt-marsh records with decadal and decimeter resolution can supplement tide-gauge records by extending record length and compensating for the strong spatial bias in the global distribution of longer instrumental records.
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The study was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Ocean Program, North Carolina Coastal Geology Cooperative Program, U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation.
The study was conducted by Kemp and Benjamin P. Horton of the Sea-Level Research Laboratory at Penn, Stephen J. Culver and D. Reide Corbett of the Department of Geological Sciences at East Carolina University, Orson van de Plassche of Vrije Universiteit, W. Roland Gehrels of the University of Plymouth, Bruce C. Douglas of Florida International University and Andrew C. Parnell of University College Dublin.
Vertical uncertainty ping.
Fascinating...just the North Carolina sea levels are rising!
The article says “in the last 500 years”. What caused it to rise 500 years ago? Was the earth experiencing “global warming” then? Was it man made?
Not only that, but the change all occurred in the 20th Century, beginning in 1879.
The Sea isn’t rising. NC is sinking. Relativity is a funny thing.
The oceans aren't draining off the edge of the world as fast as expected.
I have not noticed it much around here.
I would think it would just kinda’ spill over into VA and SC’s part of the ocean.
O CRAP!! I live in N.C.!!
has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating.
I think N.Carolina is actually sinking.
how can they check the rise of the sea level 1mm per year....tide? maybe the sea isn’t rising, but the land is sinking...
They say this is consistent with other Atlantic coast studies.
North Carolina seas are rising, but luckily this is offset by a drop in the Florida seas.
Gee, that correlates to the warming after the Dalton Minimum.
Fascinating to say the least. I wonder if North Carolina could be sinking. No, it couldn’t be.
http://www.bom.gov.au/ntc/IDO60101/IDO60101.200809.pdf
It would appear the official gov’t study of various pacific islands over the last almost 20 years would tend to disagree with the conclusion that sea levels are rising. The link above goes to their official website. They started studying very carefully sea levels back in the 90’s. These are the results of OBSERVATIONS and very precise scientific insturments placed at islands such as tonga, figi, etc.
Ufortunately for the Goreites, they show no rising sea levels over the last 20 years at ANY of the islands. So maybe the Atlantic sea level is rising while the Pacific is steady? I doubt it since they are connected, lol. More hysteria from the AGW crowd as a brutal October surprise bears down on Denver.
I think it's accepted that sea levels have been rising since the end of the last ice age. This claim is that the rise has accelerated.
from your new beach, you will be able to watch the melting icebergs float by with the sunglass clad polar bears riding atop.....
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