Sea Level Is Rising Along US Atlantic Coast, Say Environmental Scientists

Sea Level Is Rising Along US Atlantic Coast, Say Environmental Scientists
ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2009) — An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise along the Atlantic Coast of the United States was 2 millimeters faster in the 20th century than at any time in the past 4,000 years
Sea-level rise prior to the 20th century is attributed to coastal subsidence. Put simply, land is being lost to subsidence as the earth continues to rise in response to the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period. Using sediment cores from the U.S. Atlantic coast, researchers found significant spatial variations in land movement, with the mid-Atlantic coastlines of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland subsiding twice as much as areas to the north and south. Coastal subsidence enhances sea-level rise, which leads to shoreline erosion and loss of wetlands and threatens coastal populations.

Researchers corrected relative sea-level data from tide gauges using the coastal-subsidence values. Results clearly show that the 20th-century rate of sea-level rise is 2 millimeters higher than the background rate of the past 4,000 years. Furthermore, the magnitude of the sea-level rise increases in a southerly direction from Maine to South Carolina. This is the first demonstrated evidence of this phenomenon from observational data alone. Researchers believe this may be related to the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ocean thermal expansion.

"There is universal agreement that sea level will rise as a result of global warming but by how much, when and where it will have the most effect is unclear," said Benjamin P. Horton, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Penn. "Such information is vital to governments, commerce and the general public. An essential prerequisite for accurate prediction is understanding how sea level has responded to past climate changes and how these were influenced by geological events such as land movements."

The study provides the first accurate dataset for sea-level rise for the U.S. Atlantic coast, identifying regional differences that arise from variations in subsidence and demonstrate the possible effects of ice-sheet melting and thermal expansion for sea level rise.

The results appear in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Geology. The study was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Thouron Family and the University of Pennsylvania.

The study was performed by Simon E. Engelhart and Horton of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Penn, Bruce C. Douglas of the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University, W. Richard Peltier of the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto and Torbjörn E. Törnqvist of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane University.

Unless you went out there and measured this yourself,this should be in the hoax file.Sorry op but any global warming thread that has these words in it

Say Environmental Scientists

I think should be taken with a grain of salt.

[edit on 11-12-2009 by genius/idoit]

Originally posted by genius/idoit
Unless you went out there and measured this yourself,this should be in the hoax file.Sorry op but any global warming thread that has these words in it

Say Environmental Scientists

I think should be taken with a grain of salt.

[edit on 11-12-2009 by genius/idoit]

I don't think a knee jerk reaction like that really helps the debate. you can't just rule out science because of the hacked emails. that would be quite unwise. imo

Here is some links and sources ..................esciencenews.com.................. ......................www.sciencedaily.com........................... .................Source: University of Pennsylvania.................. news-about-space.org... ......................

Okay what is with all these "environmental scientist" wanting to "correct" everything?

Researchers corrected relative sea-level data from tide gauges using the coastal-subsidence values.

I have a hard time believing anything out of the science journals that have been strong proponents of AGW theory. Especially after the CRU leak showed that they "scientist" actively engineered ways to shut down dissent in journals.

Originally posted by genius/idoit
Unless you went out there and measured this yourself,this should be in the hoax file.Sorry op but any global warming thread that has these words in it

Say Environmental Scientists

I think should be taken with a grain of salt.

[edit on 11-12-2009 by genius/idoit]

I was thinking the same thing myself. except i was also thinking about how we need to come up with a new term for these so called "environmental scientists" and seperate them from the real ones.

So, what they are telling us is that if we stand on the shore with our toes in the water, then the sea level may rise high enough to drown us....in 10,000 years?

I hardly think 2 cm is a significant measurement when talking about a body of water that is several miles deep.

Just my 2-cents

How can sea level rise on only one coast? It either rises everywhere or not at all.

reply to post by fumanchu


The rise on one coast only happens when they add the "correction" to the data. But very very good point. I read till I got to the correction portion and stopped reading after that.