Photo source: ©© Baban Shyam
Excerpts;
Since the end of the last ice age 21,000 years ago, our planet has seen ocean levels rise by 120m to reach their current levels.
This increase has not been constant, rather punctuated by rapid accelerations, linked to massive outburst floods from the ice caps.The largest increase, known by paleoclimatologists as ‘Melt-Water Pulse 1A’, proved to be enigmatic in many respects.
A study recently published in Nature by a team from the CEREGE laboratory in collaboration with the universities of Tokyo and Oxford has revealed the mysteries of this event, without doubt one of the most important in the last deglaciation.
These studies have shed new light on the complex relationship between climate, ocean circulation and sea levels…
These results are highly important with regard to the current rise in sea levels, which is one of the most worrying effects of global warming dating from the start of the industrial era. More recent simulations suggest an increase in sea levels of between 60 and 180cm by 2100.
The risks are high: more than three billion people, or half of the world’s population, live on the coast or less that 200km from a coastline, and one tenth of the population currently lives less than 10m above sea level…
