Scientists just got some ancient clues about future sea-level rise – the Washington Post

Early Melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet (2017) by Jesse Allen, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.

Tangier Island — off the mainland coast of Virginia — is one of the last inhabited islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Before colonial settlers arrived in the 1700s, Indigenous people likely traveled to the island in the summer to take advantage of the abundant fish and crabs…Many descendants of the original settlers — with surnames like Crockett, Parks and Thomas — have remained to this day. The isolation has allowed the development of a unique accent, one that some residents describe as a mix between “Southern” and “Elizabethan” English….

Ancient Warning of a Rising Sea | Interactive – the Washington Post

Beach Grand L' Anse La Digue, Seychelles (by Falco Ermert CC BY 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

By studying the long-dead coral reefs, researchers have revealed not only how high sea levels can reach, but where the deluge will hit hardest. As temperatures surge and ice sheets melt, the fossils show, the oceans won’t rise evenly around the planet. Instead, the loss of polar ice will trigger profound changes in Earth’s gravity and shape — which, in turn, will create dramatic disparities in where ocean water flows…