Sea Levels Rising Faster Than Expected, Survey Says

The National Science Foundation is warning of rising sea levels throughout the 21st century due to the loss of ice from glaciers and ice caps. They base their statement on research done at the University of Colorado at Boulder

The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and also in part by NASA. The results showed that the amount of ice slipping into the water from glaciers and ice caps has been increasing very rapidly over the last ten years. The current rate for ice caps is about 60% of the total ice that slips into the water every year. To give you a reference point as to exactly how much this is, it is equal to the volume of water in Lake Erie. It is not staying at this rate. It is currently increasing at the rate of about three cubic miles each year.

Greenland is losing about 28% of its ice to the water right now. Antarctica about 12%, but by the end of the century, Greenland will catch up to the ice caps and glaciers.

There have been changes in the flow of glaciers that split off icebergs into the ocean. Many of these glaciers, called tidewater glaciers, are doing what is called stretching and retreating, which is causing them to thin very rapidly and speed up which causes them to put more ice into the oceans.

These factors lead the study to point out the effect they will have on human life. By the year 2100, the ice that is melting off the glaciers and ice caps has the capacity to add from 4 to almost 10 inches to the rise of sea level. There are other factors that will contribute to make the sea level rise even higher, factors like the expansion of the warming ocean water. This one factor alone could make the figures double.

To get this into prospective, if the sea level rises by 12 inches, the shore line will move 100 feet inland. And this is not just in the US. It will happen world wide. A one-foot sea-level rise typically causes a shoreline retreat of 100 feet or more. 100 million people now live within about three feet of sea level, the World Bank estimates.

A Melting Glacier

Credit: http://www.nsf.gov/news/

Copyright: http://www.nsf.gov/