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Sea-Level Rise


My Blogs (olelog) are mainly based on my daily reading of earth science news.

Here on whatonearth.olehnielsen.dk I try to weave some of the pieces together to a greater whole with added background info.


Possible Causes for Global Sea-level Rise

  1. Global warming (through thermal expansion of ocean water and melting of ice cover).
  2. Plate tectonics (sea-floor spreading rates, colision of continents and ocean ridge lengths).
  3. Superplumes (emplacement of oceanic plateaus).
  4. Erosion and sedimentatiom (e.g. shoreline location)
  5. Variations in water volume of groundwater and lakes

Notes: 1 and 5 control the volume of water in the ocean.
2, 3 and 4 control the volume of ocean basins
2 and 3 work on a long term geological scale.They may have been responsible for the extraordinary high global sea-level in the Cretacious.

Possible Effects of Sea-level Rise

  1. Permanent inundation of low-lying islands (including some island states)
  2. Coastal inundation and coastal erosion
  3. Decline in soil and water quality (surface water and groundwater)
  4. Reactivating of volcanoes situated near sea level

 


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