The Hockey Schtick:
A paper published today in Nature Communications finds sea levels naturally rose up to 5.5 meters [18 feet] per century during 5 prior interglacial periods. In addition, the authors finds interglacials “with close to the modern amount of ice on Earth, show rates sea level rise of up to 1 to 1.5 metres per century,” which is about8 times faster than sea levels are rising today with the same levels of ice on Earth [i.e. less than 7 inches per century without acceleration].
Further, in a prior paper by the same authors and using the same data, the authors state that today’s sea levels are well within the levels expected from natural variability and that natural variability alone could account for 25 meters more sea level rise than the present:
“Regardless of the uncertainties surrounding the use of any one of the specific scenarios in Fig. 2, it is clear that equilibrium sea level for the present-day [CO2] of 387 ppmv resides within a broad range between 0 and +25 (±5) meters.”
and show sea levels during at least 4 prior interglacials over the past 500,000 years were higher than during the present interglacial period [up to 31 feet higher during the last interglacial alone]. Thus, there is no evidence that the [decelerating] sea level rise over the past ~20,000 years is unusual, unprecedented, or unnatural.
The same data in a prior paper from the same authors shows sea levels during at least 4 prior interglacials were higher than during the present interglacial [at left side of graph]. Green crosses in second graph from top show relative sea level highstand mean and uncertainty.
Study finds global sea levels rose up to five meters per century at the end of the last five ice age cycles
September 25th, 2014 in Earth / Earth Sciences
Credit: Tiago Fioreze / WikipediaLand-ice decay at the end of the last five ice-ages caused global sea-levels to rise at rates of up to 5.5 metres per century, according to a new study. [5.5 meters/century is 31 times faster than current sea level rise]An international team of researchers developed a 500,000-year record of sea-level variability, to provide the first account of how quickly sea-level changed during the last five ice-age cycles.
The results, published in the latest issue of Nature Communications, also found that more than 100 smaller events of sea-level rise took place in between the five major events.
