Questions tagged [sea-level]

Questions regarding the height of the ocean's surface.

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38 votes
7 answers
11k views

Is the sea level rise unusual?

I'm discussing climate change with a friend who is a climate change denier, basically the argument is that looking at this graph, is not clear that something unusual is going on, so the sea level rise ...
Samuraka's user avatar
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30 votes
6 answers
6k views

How much will sea level rise if all the polar ice melts?

There are many movies about global warming, which say that melting of all polar ice would cause the whole world to suffer a huge flood. According my research (teachers, TV, Internet) people hold one ...
Poomrokc The 3years's user avatar
29 votes
4 answers
8k views

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 ...
Lucian09474's user avatar
  • 1,952
22 votes
2 answers
8k views

"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 ...
uhoh's user avatar
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22 votes
1 answer
2k views

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 ...
TheMagicPirate's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
2k views

What fraction of dry land is below sea level?

Someone just asked me if it would be practical to counter the rise of sea level by pumping water into storage on land. It struck me that if there is enough land below sea level, this would require ...
mwengler's user avatar
  • 303
18 votes
2 answers
886 views

Are there secondary causes of sea level change?

Aside from the fraction of water stored as ice on land and temperature of the water, are there other factors that change sea level, and if so what are is the magnitudes of the these changes? For ...
DavePhD's user avatar
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18 votes
2 answers
1k views

Historically, how has the fraction of Earth covered by water changed?

Today, 70.8% of the Earth is covered in water (± a few tenths of a percent depending on how you account for lakes).1 How has this figure changed over the history of the Earth, and why? Of course, if ...
senshin's user avatar
  • 1,875
18 votes
1 answer
2k views

What influences tide-height the most? Can I guess the height by looking on a globe?

I hope that the question title is resonably clear: What are the most significant factors which influence the tide height? I'm aware of the following couple of them: Sun-Earth-Moon relative position (...
yo''s user avatar
  • 1,158
18 votes
1 answer
161 views

Paleogene transantarctic seaway

Lawver & Gahagan (1998; 2003) hypothesized, based on sea level records and the isostatically adjusted bedrock surface of Antarctica, the existence of a Trans-Antarctic Seaway linking the Ross Sea ...
plannapus's user avatar
  • 5,338
17 votes
1 answer
195 views

What is the appropriate vertical datum to use globally?

When studying sea level changes, it is normal to analyze water level with respect to a common vertical datum. The most used datum is Mean Sea Level (MSL), which NOAA defines as "The arithmetic mean of ...
arkaia's user avatar
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16 votes
1 answer
350 views

Potential explanations of Red Sea crossing

I am looking for a believable explanation of the Red Sea Crossing in the Bible. This would involve either strong winds(which is mentioned in the Bible) or plate tectonics which could cause land to ...
user1278255's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why doesn't sea level show seasonality?

North-hemisphere ice-shelf melts on summer and grows on winter. I would expect appreciable changes on sea-level between seasons, but sea-level looks equal on winter than on summer. Why doesn't sea ...
user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is a reasonable forecast of sea level in 2100?

The IPCC 2013 Physical Science Basis Report says 0.4m - 0.6m. That is somewhat dated and now http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/15/20059/2015/acpd-15-20059-2015.html seem to have contested it. ...
Grant Bussell's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
377 views

Sea Level in Paleogeographic Maps

Most paleogeographic maps available (C. R. Scotese or R. Blakey maps for instance) show not only the shape of the continents during the concerned period but also the level of the seas and oceans (i. e....
plannapus's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
667 views

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 ...
arkaia's user avatar
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14 votes
3 answers
6k views

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 ...
f.thorpe's user avatar
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14 votes
2 answers
6k views

Effect on sea level if the Earth stopped rotating

Would sea level change at the equator if the Earth stopped spinning? I am assuming it is currently bulging around it due to centrifugal force.
Mazura's user avatar
  • 495
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is there a geological explanation for the recent Mammoth tusk discovery 185 miles off the California coast?

A recently publicized discovery of a Columbian Mammoth tusk located well of the coast of California in quite deep water made me wonder if geological conditions 100,000 years ago can explain how it got ...
justCal's user avatar
  • 1,186
14 votes
1 answer
324 views

Where does the biggest land-based ice cap reside?

I'm thinking biggest in volume, regarding which area of the planet will contribute more to a raising in sea level - were the ice in those regions to melt. I can basically think of two candidates, ...
harogaston's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
716 views

Does the 0m elevation height of a Digital Elevation Model (Copernicus DEM) correspond to mean sea level?

I want to model future coastal flooding caused by sea-level rise under the latest IPCC scenarios at global scale. To this end, I use the Copernicus Digital Elevation Model (Copernicus DEM: https://...
Circus pygargus's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
196 views

How much of the underwater land masses within the arctic ocean is considered continental shelf?

Right now I'm in the middle of writing my master thesis which is about modelling the ocean bottom pressure (obp) under areas with sea-ice coverage. In most Oceanic General Circulation Model's (ogcm) ...
Julian Zimmermann's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Would it be geographically feasible to store water on land to counteract sea level rise?

Based on a misunderstanding of another post, I prepared an estimate of how much water would be required to lower sea level by one meter. the main question would be: could this be stored on land?
Peter Jansson's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
7k views

What happens to sea level when a ship sinks?

Let's assume that a ship is traveling on the ocean and it sinks, what is the effect on sea level? Even if the effect is small, would it go up, down or remain the same?
arkaia's user avatar
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11 votes
3 answers
5k views

How long to melt all the polar ice?

The answers to this question say that the sea level will rise 66m if all the polar ice, etc, melts. How long will this take? Transporting incredible amounts of heat energy to the poles and injecting ...
ravenspoint's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
1k views

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 ...
Keith McClary's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
326 views

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 ...
Syd's user avatar
  • 293
11 votes
3 answers
3k views

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 ...
mart's user avatar
  • 1,244
10 votes
9 answers
4k views

Are there any (land) hills/mountains with bases below sea level?

There are areas of land that are in fact, below sea level. Are there any hills or mountains that have bases that start in these below-sea-level areas of land?
blademan9999's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
3k views

How much does sea level rise due to sediment deposition?

There has been a lot of noise in the news in the last few days because Congressman Mo Brooks from Alabama claimed that erosion played a role in rising sea levels. Quoting from Science magazine: ...
Floris's user avatar
  • 1,374
10 votes
1 answer
936 views

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/...
user4624937's user avatar
  • 1,811
10 votes
2 answers
139 views

Is there any link between sea-water inflitration into groundwater and nitrate?

I recently read a pop-science article about sea-water infilitration into (sweet) groundwater. One specific instance mentioned was the gaza strip: Exzessive well building and drawing of groundwater ...
mart's user avatar
  • 1,244
10 votes
1 answer
257 views

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 ...
arkaia's user avatar
  • 15.4k
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

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 ...
Kronimiciad's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
838 views

How is sea level measured?

In comments on Earth changes due to global climate change, sea level changes is a common topic. I hear quotes about sea level changes in the centimeter and even millimeter range and wonder how such ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
289 views

How was Venice flooded?

If I understand this correctly, Venice was not flooded due to sudden rainfall causing rivers to overflow, but due to the high tides. These high tides were caused by an alignment of sun, which was ...
Martin Drozdik's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k 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 ...
Ram Keswani's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
187 views

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 ...
Jan Doggen's user avatar
  • 2,679
8 votes
2 answers
781 views

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 ...
user4624937's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
1k views

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 ...
Adam's user avatar
  • 181
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

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?
user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
5k views

Would the US East Coast rise if everyone living there moved away?

I watched a documentary about research on the coasts of Greenland where the sea level has fallen. According to the research, this is because a lot of the glaciers have melted, resulting in less weight ...
Alexis Wilke's user avatar
7 votes
5 answers
4k views

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 ...
Alf's user avatar
  • 97
7 votes
2 answers
714 views

Have there ever been any islands that disappeared due to rising sea level?

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 ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 2,155
7 votes
1 answer
261 views

What definition of "seamount" is used by the largest utilised databases of seamounts?

Appears that answering what seamounts are is a non-trivial question. My take is what matters is data, since authoritative opinions on the topic are at best subjective. As such, my position is the ...
blunders's user avatar
  • 4,601
7 votes
1 answer
6k views

If ALL the ice melted, what percentage of the Earth's surface would be water?

At the present time, about 70% of the earth's surface is liquid water (perhaps that includes floating ice around Antarctica, and the Arctic Ice cap). What percentage of the Earth's surface would be ...
Jim Brenneman's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
70 views

How much does ocean cover percentage change between glacial periods? [duplicate]

Currently, oceans cover about 71% of the total area of Earth. Ice ages can cause this figure to fluctuate, by lowering the sea level and creating land bridges and other features. How much can this ...
congusbongus's user avatar
  • 1,833
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

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 ...
Simon Gibbs's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
4k views

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 ...
arkaia's user avatar
  • 15.4k
6 votes
2 answers
4k views

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?
lithium123's user avatar