There are three factors at work. Number 1: Ice on land melting because of rising temperatures increases the sea level by adding water to the oceans. Number 2: The warming of the oceans causes an increase in the volume and therefore an increase in the sea levels. Number 3: In many areas, the land is subsiding (sinking) and this makes it appear that the sea level is rising. This phenomenon varies greatly. For example, it is a big factor along the Gulf of Mexico.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Whitley
Be patient with me, my masters is in corporate finance. The first law of thermodynamics, matter can neither be created nor destroyed. When I was much younger I would consider that all of the water that has been or will be is already here. Ocean has evaporation, clouds form, when a certain saturation is reached it rains (or snows) and the water falls to the earth. It may land on land as snow or ice or rain. Rain that falls anywhere, or frozen precipitation that falls in water will flow back to the seas. (Kind of makes me wonder about the water we drink, but that too makes its way back I guess). I would propose the sea level can increase based on melting of ice on land. Icebergs or glaciers floating in the sea should have no effect on the sea level when it melts. Only ice now on land, as it melts, would add to the sea level. Overly simplified but I need it to be. Sorry if I am boring or wrong. I understand the above. What I do not understand is how the sea level could increase over 100 years, 1.5 feet off Main, 1 foot in NYC, 1.5 feet in Chesapeake bay and the outer banks of NC, and only 1 foot in Miami. These are all part of the same continent on the Atlantic. Can someone explain it to me, simply? Maybe after that we can discuss how water we drink gets back to the ocean (I fear the answer)
|