Questions tagged [sea-level]
Questions regarding the height of the ocean's surface.
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How is sea level measured?
I've thought that perhaps scientists use radar and ping off the ocean's floor, ensuring geo-similarity via GPS, but that doesn't seem to work, considering the open ocean probably also experiences ...
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If all the world's ice were to melt, would this shift the earth's centre of gravity with consequential effects on sea levels?
This question on Maths SE asked how we might calculate the effect on sea level if all the world's ice (ie including the whole Antarctic ice sheet) were to melt. I posted an answer containing ...
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Calculating geological age
Suppose we assume a constant rate of plate motion at 3.8cm per year. How old would the Atlantic Ocean be right now?
I'd like a simple answer and explanation.
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How would Earth map look like if all ice melts?
Is there somewhere a map which indicates which areas and cities become sea?
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How much ocean water is currently being displaced by ships?
According to Statista, as of January 2017, there are approximately 52,000 ships currently operating in the merchant fleet and 11,000 of these are considered bulk carriers.
How many ships are there ...
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Do ocean level rise estimates account for mantle elasticity and plate mass changes?
In the mainstream media the problem of ocean level rise is presented rather... over-simplistically - ice melts -> more water flows into the oceans -> water level rises -> continents sink.
But it is ...
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“Five of the Solomon Islands disappeared” due to sea level rise, how is this possible so quickly?
The text of the introduction to the BBC Podcast Sea Levels Rise; The Compass, Living on the Edge Episode 1 of 4 says:
Five of the Solomon Islands have disappeared, many more are becoming ...
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119 views
Is altitude of everything decreasing due to sea level rise?
We know that sea level is rising, though some people say climate change is fake.
Altitude is defined as the height of something measured from sea level.
Since sea level is increasing, and the ...
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Estimated volume, daily or annually, of sea level rise due to melting ice?
Its a big number, difficult to estimate I assume. But is there a peer reviewed estimation (at current conditions) of the volume of daily or annual increase of water?
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estimation of prehistoric sea levels
From what reference point/level are prehistorical (e.g., Precambrian era) sea levels estimated? As I understand things, the following are true:
Since the formation of continents, land elevations ...
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Was the Earth's sea-level significantly lower in ancient times?
A lot of times, ancient artifacts or even whole ancient civilizations are found buried very deep into the ground surface of the earth.
Entire civilizations that had high buildings have been found ...
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1answer
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Approximation of ancient landmasses using current ocean floor data
I am wondering how accurate such an approximation would be. I wish to take a current height map of the earth (including the ocean floor) and approximate the form of ancient landmasses by changing the ...
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Data sets for historical sea level estimates
I am looking for data sets for historical global sea level estimates. How would I go about doing this the best way? Are there any publicly available resources for this?
The timespan I am looking at ...
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How will sea level rise be distributed across the globe?
Sea level rise from melting glaciers will not be uniformly distributed across the globe. However, it isn't clear to me what places will have the most and least extreme changes in sea level rise. I ...
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Hypothetically, would digging a big trench from the ocean and flooding desert areas be a bad solution to combatting sea level rise? [duplicate]
My question is basically the title. Ignoring most of the feasibility of the enormous engineering and earthmoving requirements (I guess I mean to say, given an unlimited budget) in very hot areas, ...
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Beringia - history of the region, periods of sea level fall/rise - paleogeography of Pleistocene
I am trying to find any published (not wiki) source of information about how many times and when exactly the Bering Land Mass was free of water. Everything that I find is just pieces of information in ...
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1answer
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Is there enough water to cover the surface of a topographically normalized earth?
Is there enough water in the oceans, ice caps, rivers and streams to cover a completely flattened earth, in proportional to land volume and water volume?
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How to determine ocean bottom depth for a data set consisting of longitude and latitude?
Given a data set which consists of pairs of longitudes and latitudes, is it possible to determine an estimate of the ocean bottom depth at that point?
I can find maps of estimated sea depths online (...
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What current evidence is there for a Glacial Hudson River Valley deluge?
Some have studied the Lake Missoula glacial dam breaking West and having created the Coulees of Eastern Washington. Who's studied the glacial dam breaking South and having cleared the Hudson River ...
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Dataset for expected sea level rise in case of massive meltdowns (Greenland/Antarctica)
Around the time climate change became a 'public issue' (let's say shortly after An inconvenient truth came out), figures started getting published about the expected (global) sea level rise in case of ...
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Why do high tides vary month to month?
I've noticed that some ‘highest‘ high tides in one month are bigger than the highest high-tide of previous months. Why is this so? I've always been stumped on this one.
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Changes in rainfalls, sea level and tropical cyclones
Is there any scientific evidence that exploitation of natural resources (fossil energies, forests etc.) affects rainfalls or sea level, which can represent extreme events?
I read IPCC 2014 report and ...
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Rising sea level: flooding of iconic buildings
I realize that this question may be arguably off-topic, but there doesn't seem to be a stack exchange specific to oceanography, geography, or architecture.
With rising sea level in mind, how high ...
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How to identify low or high pressure area
If rain is due to the flow of humid air from a high pressure area to a low pressure area, without the use of devices, technology or mass media is it possible to detect regions of high or low ...
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1answer
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Do any rivers deposit sediment in their deltas fast enough to counteract sea level rise?
Assume a 1m per century sea level rise. Looking at a topographic map it quicly becomes clear that Bengal, the Netherlands, the lower Mississippi, South American Mesopotamia, etc will all soon be ...
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What would be the sea level rise if all fossil resources are burnt
An article of july 2015 from a team of the University of Victoria are predicting a global temperature increase of 7+-2.5°C and 17.2+-2.5°C at the equator and at the pole respectively if all fossil ...
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Sea Level Rise due to Climate Change
I've been trying to make sense of the argument surrounding sea level rise and not getting very far.
Those who claim that Sea Level Rise is insignificant generally assert that we have been unable to ...
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1answer
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How to correct PSMSL data for GIA?
I have a PSMSL RLR (revised local reference) sea level dataset with records from various tide gauges. Can anyone explain how to correct them for GIA (glacial isostatic adjustment) using the ICE-5G ...
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Coral growth keeping up with sea level rise?
On 11 sep 2016, the Australian Herald Sun placed an opinion piece by Andrew Bolt titled Drowning in cash: Pacific islands love this scare* about the $300 million** financial aid pledged by the ...
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Will increased precipitation in Antarctica prevent sea level rise?
It has been suggested that global warming will lead to increased precipitation in parts of Antarctica. This would sequester water in the ice sheet, preventing sea level rise.
However, the slope (and ...
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When specifying phase and amplitude for a tidal constituent, what date/time does phase start from?
It is common to describe tidal elevations at a given location by giving the phases and amplitudes of tidal constituents. One such application is for setting the open boundary conditions for regional ...
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Effects of pressure at sea level
According to this answer atmospheric pressure can vary between 870 and 1070 mb.
Can you tell what (if any) effects would there be on sea level if such difference of pressure (200 mb) on two near ...
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How to measure elevation above sea level
Elevation is often measured in terms of "[unit of length] above sea level." Considering that the oceans aren't a uniform height, how is this measured?
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Definitions of tidal harmonic constituents…?
Does anyone know where there is a detailed definition for tidal harmonic constituents? There is loads of stuff on $M_2$, $S_2$, $N_2$, etc. (all the common ones), but there are a great many more, some ...
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How were the sea levels around western Europe during the Medieval Warm Period?
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time from about 950 to 1250 when climate was warmer than in the timespans immediately before and after.
My question is if this ...
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How far upstream would severe sea level rise (1m) noticably affect a large river?
The projection for sea level rise due to global warming seem to hover about 1m by 2100, let's use this figure. How far upstream would this noticably affect a large river, e.g. the Rhine?
I think it ...
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Water levels: What does “mBf” mean?
I have seen the term MBf used in a couple of places (a ramp specification and a Hydrological Study) to describe height or depth of water. What is this unit? Can it be converted to meters?
For bonus ...
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Best book/s of oceanic data treatment and analysis?
I would like to purchase a/some books which are really good and practical references to get into the oceanic data (wave heights,currents and sea level) treatment and statistical analysis, coming from ...
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Have there ever been any islands that are no longer islands due to the rising sea?
With global warming comes rising sea levels. This has been going on for at least fifty years.
So haven't there been some islands that have been swallowed by now? An island could be nothing more than ...
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1answer
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What causes variation of seabed depth relative to fixed chart datum?
Please refer to this page of coastal wiki. Quoting:
...the reconstructed overall vertical position [of the seabed] with respect to a fixed chart datum may vary by more than 10 cm from survey to ...
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What is the effect of rising sea level on measurements of elevation?
If the earth's mean sea level rises, I assume that requires humans to adjust current measurements of elevation? For example, Mt Everest would no longer be 8,848 metres above sea level. Is there a more ...
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How can the world's sea level rise and fall simultaneously?
I have just been reading this article on Gizmodo (known for its hard science I know), that talks about sea level rising by up to 3 feet(!).
In the article and video, created from information from ...
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Can rocks have pressure signatures?
Since rocks can have magnetic signatures, as is the case with paleomagnetism, can they store past pressures also?
For example, when researchers are trying to determine past ocean levels, they ...
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Could the Dead Sea dry up? and if so, when?
According to recent findings, during the last interglacial period, about 120,000 years ago, the precursor of the Dead Sea (Lake Lisan) dried up perhaps entirely. Today, the Dead Sea level is dropping ...
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What is the inverted barometer effect?
In a related question (Does bathymetry affect ocean topography/height?), the effect of atmospheric pressure on sea level is described as "inverted barometer". What does it mean? How does it get ...
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Are the oceans rising or the continents going down? How can we know?
The century old sustained rising of oceans, at a rate of 2-4 mm/y, remains a unexplained phenomenon; there is no correlation with temperature variations, so it is not due to the thermal variation of ...
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1answer
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What is the potential impact of hurricane intensification and sea level rise on coastal flooding?
Climate change has the potential to increase flooding by hurricane intensification (magnitude and intensity) and by sea level rise. Many communities around the world are already exposed to coastal ...
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Why is relative sea-level falling in Hudson Bay?
Why is the sea level in Hudson Bay decreasing so much? Hudson Bay is pretty far up north, much closer to glaciers. Would it make sense for it to recede at this level with sources of fresh water ...
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Does bathymetry affect ocean topography/height?
Here is a map of ocean surface height or topography:
Source: http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2010/12/mean_dynamic_topography_of_global_ocean/9930795-2-eng-GB/...
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Sea Surface Height Data
Is there a good dataset on global ocean sea surface height? I found this, http://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/sea_level_viewer, but there is no data I can download and it's hard to see the latitude ...
