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To: Zakeet

Every ground water pump on earth running full bore 24/7 would add no more to the oceans each year than a teaspoon in a swimming pool.


30 posted on 10/09/2010 8:39:34 AM PDT by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty too! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: JimRed
Every ground water pump on earth running full bore 24/7 would add no more to the oceans each year than a teaspoon in a swimming pool.

That's the relative scale of the sea level change being discussed, most likely.

37 posted on 10/09/2010 8:51:53 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: JimRed

Just did some back-of-the-envelope calculations.

1) Total groundwater used for irrigation is estimated at 545 cubic kilometers per year.

http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/7/3977/2010/hessd-7-3977-2010.pdf

2) Couldn’t find a good source but I’ll ballpark 33% of that usage as “fossil” water from deep aquifers that don’t or barely recharge, leaving 180 km3.

3) Total surface area of the ocean is 361,000,000 square kilometers. Tiny fractions of the mined water end up as glaciers, ice sheets, in lakes, or in surface groundwater, but the overwhelming majority ends up in the ocean.

4) The resulting addition ends up raising sea level by half a millimeter/year; this is 2 inches over 100 years.

5) The 100 year average of yearly sea-level rise is 1.8mm/yr.

6) Yes, that can actually be measured.

7) This indicates that fossil water usage could be a significant component of the (tiny) sea level rises that are occuring.


46 posted on 10/09/2010 9:28:55 AM PDT by Strategerist
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