Our planet is warming, and the rate of rise of global sea level needs to speed up. Coastal cities such as St. Petersburg and Miami, will be harder to stay above water. But since 1992, scientists do not see any signs of accelerated rise of the ocean. Global water rise to a stable 3 mm per year.
After 20 years of deliberation, scientists finally found the culprit — the eruption of mount Pinatubo in 1991. The largest eruption of the end of the twentieth century happened almost 2 years before the TOPEX/Poseidon began to formally monitor the level of the ocean.
According to a new study, eruption cooled the oceans so that in a short period the water level decreased to 6 mm, disguising the expected acceleration. But in spite of the effect of Pinatubo, sea levels are rising and will continue to do so in the future
Our planet has a limited amount of water, but she reorganized when the climate is changing. In warm periods of Earth’s history the sea level becomes higher due to the combination effect of thermodynamics (warm liquid takes up more space than cold) and increases the total volume of water in the ocean as melting ice sheets. With the end of the last ice age to the present day global sea level rose about 125 meters.
Perhaps the most important thing we learned about the level of the ocean water rises sporadically, much accelerated when the ice shield shatters. The end of the century the increase in global sea level can be from 60 cm to 6 metres.
