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Changing winds dampen Antarctic sea-level rise
Posted by Nature: Nicola Jones on November 16th, 2013
Nature: Shifting, strengthening winds will help to counteract future sea-level rise in Antarctica -- and by doing so, they may help stabilize ice sheets on some parts of the southern continent.
The band of westerly winds that encircles Antarctica has been speeding up and creeping southward since the 1950s. The trend, largely driven by the Antarctic ozone hole, is expected to continue thanks to climate change -- and could alone cause a drop in sea level of up to 40 cm over 70 years, according to research...
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China: Fish farms cause rapid sea-level rise
Posted by Nature: Nicola Jones on August 17th, 2013
Nature: Groundwater extraction for fish farms can cause land to sink at rates of a quarter-metre a year, according to a study of China’s Yellow River delta1. The subsidence is causing local sea levels to rise nearly 100 times faster than the global average.
Global sea levels are rising at about 3 millimetres a year owing to warming waters and melting ice. But some places are seeing a much faster rise -- mainly because of sinking land. Bangkok dropped by as much as 12 centimetres a year in the 1980s thanks...
Human influence comes of age
Posted by Nature: Nicola Jones on May 12th, 2011
Nature: Humanity's profound impact on this planet is hard to deny, but is it big enough to merit its own geological epoch? This is the question facing geoscientists gathered in London this week to debate the validity and definition of the 'Anthropocene', a proposed new epoch characterized by human effects on the geological record.
"We are in the process of formalizing it," says Michael Ellis, head of the climate-change programme of the British Geological Survey in Nottingham, who coordinated the 11 May...