Researchers describe sea-level rise in southwest Greenland as a contributor to Viking abandonment

Phys dot org ^ | April 17, 2023 | Harvard University

[SunkenCiv]

Vikings occupied Greenland from roughly 985 to 1450, farming and building communities before abandoning their settlements and mysteriously vanishing. Why they disappeared has long been a puzzle, but a new paper from the Harvard University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) determines that one factor—rising sea level—likely played a major role...

The departure of these Viking settlers coincided with the beginning of the period known as the Little Ice Age, which had a particular impact on the North Atlantic. But while cooling and freezing might seem likely to lower sea levels, a variety of factors combined to have the opposite effect in Greenland.

With the waters of the North Atlantic "contributing to that new ice volume, intuition might suggest that sea level should go down," Borreggine noted. However, a closer look at previously published geomorphological and paleoclimate data and the researchers' modeling of ice-sheet growth suggested that the opposite occurred in Greenland, focusing on the Vikings' Eastern Settlement. "What we study in our group is glacial isostatic adjustment, a process that leads to changes in the gravitational field, the rotation axis, and crustal deformation as the ice grows or melts," said Borreggine...

What the researchers found was striking: Not only were sea levels drawn up by gravity, other factors—including the subsidence of Greenland's land mass—made the settlement more prone to flooding.

Focusing on the period of Viking habitation from 1000 to 1450, "There's already a background trend of sea-level rise upon Viking arrival in the Eastern Settlement," they said. "It's been rising for a few thousand years." But there's also a local effect: "Crustal subsidence, or the sinking of land and the gravitational pull of water toward the growing ice sheet."

[SunkenCiv]

Regional setting and ice history. (A) The Eastern Settlement of Southern Greenland. The inset shows the entirety of Greenland; dark gray depicts grounded ice cover at present, light gray is land, and white is ocean. Eight black stars show locations of the Viking sites considered herein and also Nanortalik, where Late Holocene relative sea-level data have been collected (11). B is Brattahlid, D is Dyrnaes, G is Gardar, H is Hvalsey, N is Narsaq, N2 is Nanortalik, S1 is Site 1, S2 is Site 2, and uS is Undir Solarfjollum. (B) The tetrahedral grid across Southern Greenland used in the sea-level simulation (top 72 km of Earth’s interior is shown in light gray; surface shading reflects grid resolution and is discussed in Material and Methods Section 3B) with ice mask (blue to white gradient) overlain. The ice mask is estimated from ref. 12. The yellow box shows an area encompassing the Eastern Settlement and the area of ice growth (the same area is shown in Fig. 3A). The green box shows an area with several important Viking settlements, where coastal flooding is assessed (also seen in Fig. 4A). For more details, Section 3A. (C) Time-varying growth for our ice history, normalized to a maximum value of 1.0, and adapted from refs. 13–15. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209615120

Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023)

[SunkenCiv]

• Norse Greenlanders found to have imported timber from North America [04/22/2023]

[Gay State Conservative]

Damn SUVs...damn gas ovens!

[mass55th]

Oh noes!! Global warming!!

[ClearCase_guy]

The departure of these Viking settlers coincided with the beginning of the period known as the Little Ice Age, which had a particular impact on the North Atlantic. But while cooling and freezing might seem likely to lower sea levels, a variety of factors combined to have the opposite effect in Greenland.

So, the scientific consensus is basically, "It's whatever."

Colder? That's Global Warming and rising seas.
Warmer? That's Global Warming and rising seas.
Remarkably steady? That's Global Warming and rising seas.

[EvilCapitalist]

Climate Change, is there anything it isn’t responsible for?

[Paladin2]

It’s a total scam, Jim....

[FlyingEagle]

What if there was sudden land mass subsidence in Martha’s Vineyard, and in Nantucket. Our climate Czar and Brandon Junta friends would need new luxury beach houses. Quelle dommage.

[Organic Panic]

Oh Bullcrap. These “researches” don’t have a clue why the Vikings left.

[SauronOfMordor]

We are not talking about steel skyscrapers here. We are talking about wooden huts. If they at risk of flooding the Vikings would have moved the huts further up hill.

Greenland was settled during the Medieval Warm Period, when melting glaciers made the land well watered and green, and abandoned when it got too cold to farm there.

[Maine Mariner]

Impossible. President Trump was not President.

[BrexitBen]

” The Harvard Department of Earth and Planetary Science “?

Maybe they can garner a nice donation from John Kerry and Albert Gore Jr. as a result of this amazing discovery.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Those darn Viking Sport Utility Ships were a cause of global warming.

[arthurus]

Sea levels have been rising for 7000 years.

[marktwain]

However, a closer look at previously published geomorphological and paleoclimate data and the researchers' modeling of ice-sheet growth suggested that the opposite occurred in Greenland,

In other words, based on a computer model.

These computer models are a classic example if garbage in, garbage out.

Models are not science. They reflect the researchers desires.

[mfish13]

Damn. I want one of those antique SUV’s.

[cdcdawg]

Drumph’s fault!!!

[SunkenCiv]

The very existence of The Little Ice Age and the medieval warming has been denied by the real climate deniers, the AGW / global warming crowd. These folks are taking the money and confirming that climate change is 100% natural, even if they'd deny that under oath.

[redfreedom]

I can imagine diesel powered ships and coal fired generating stations were responsible for the Viking abandonment. Those dang fossil fuels will make the water rise anywhere.

[SunkenCiv]

from the current page of Archaeologica:

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• Mosaic Discovered in Ruins of Submerged Roman Town Heritage Daily
• Underwater Survey Reveals New Discoveries in Sunken Town of Baia Heritage Daily