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Thursday, June 7, 2018

The World According To Measurements - 13

Fig. 1 U.S. East Coast (Zone 7307)
I. Graphs

Portions of the East Coast (specifically, areas within World Ocean Database (WOD) Zone 7307) on average have seen 1.7 feet of sea level rise.

The graph at Fig. 1 shows that specific ~518.16 millimeter (~1.7 feet) East Coast sea level rise in actual in situ tide gauge station measurements recorded in the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) database.

That Fig. 1 graph is generated from the recent 21 May 2018 dataset.

II. Photos

Photos of Washington DC, which is in a "tidal area" because it has ocean tides and is in Zone 7307, are shown in Fig. 2a - Fig. 2d.

The photo at Fig. 2e is from Miami, FL, and is added to show that the entire East Coast is in for the same future (Disaster on the Horizon: The Price Effect of Sea Level Rise, PDF; Climate gentrification: from theory to empiricism in Miami-Dade County, Florida).

The U.S. Capital joins the World According To Measurements:

Fig. 2a D.C. (The swamp thickens)
Fig. 2b DC (The Anacosta Sewer Overflow)
Fig. 2c D.C. (Lobbyist swamp sewer critter fishing)
Fig. 2d DC (Swamp Spectators Swamped)
Fig. 2e Miami, FL

(photo source: ... Washington, District of Columbia ...).

III. Links To Tide Gauge Records

You can view individual tide gauge stations of WOD Zone 7307 in the following links:

PHILADELPHIA (PIER 9N) [stn. #135, yrs of data: 118]
REEDY POINT [stn. #786, yrs of data: 33]
ATLANTIC CITY [stn. #180, yrs of data: 104]
BALTIMORE [stn. #148, yrs of data: 116]
ANNAPOLIS (NAVAL ACADEMY) [stn. #311, yrs of data: 88]
CAPE MAY [stn. #1153, yrs of data: 49]
MATAPEAKE [stn. #1338, yrs of data: 10]
WASHINGTON DC [stn. #360, yrs of data: 87]
LEWES (BREAKWATER HARBOR) [stn. #224, yrs of data: 79]
INDIAN RIVER INLET [stn. #1337, yrs of data: 11]
CAMBRIDGE [stn. #481, yrs of data: 10]
CAMBRIDGE II [stn. #1295, yrs of data: 47]
OCEAN CITY INLET [stn. #2292, yrs of data: 19]
SOLOMON'S ISLAND (BIOL. LAB.) [stn. #412, yrs of data: 81]
PINEY POINT [stn. #971, yrs of data: 13]
RICHMOND [stn. #462, yrs of data: 27]
GLOUCESTER POINT [stn. #597, yrs of data: 53]
KIPTOPEKE BEACH [stn. #636, yrs of data: 67]
CHESAPEAKE BAY BR. TUN. [stn. #1635, yrs of data: 33]
SEWELLS POINT [stn. #299, yrs of data: 91]
VIRGINIA BEACH [stn. #945, yrs of data: 12]
PORTSMOUTH (NORFOLK NAVY YARD) [stn. #399, yrs of data: 53]
DUCK PIER OUTSIDE [stn. #1636, yrs of data: 33]
CAPE HATTERAS [stn. #2294, yrs of data: 26]
BEAUFORT [stn. #2295, yrs of data: 45]
MOREHEAD CITY [stn. #719, yrs of data: 10]
WILMINGTON [stn. #396, yrs of data: 83]
SOUTHPORT [stn. #1431, yrs of data: 13]
MYRTLE BEACH [stn. #862, yrs of data: 16]
SPRINGMAID PIER [stn. #1444, yrs of data: 35]
CHARLESTON I [stn. #234, yrs of data: 97]

IV. Conclusion

Just for grins I added two graphs (Fig. 3a - Fig. 3b) to show that the major cause of this sea level rise is not thermal expansion of the oceans.

The major cause of sea level rise is ice sheets and land glaciers melting:
"The vast Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, plays a starring role in the future of climate change. The global oceans together absorb over 90 percent of the excess heat in the climate system and roughly three-quarters of that heat uptake occurs in the Southern Ocean. In addition, the global oceans absorb around 25 percent of
Fig. 3a Thermal Expansion Factor
Fig. 3b Cryosphere Melting Factor
anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and the Southern Ocean alone accounts for about half of the uptake of CO2.


Despite its critical role in our climate system, the Southern Ocean has gone almost completely unobserved. Scientists have struggled to gather precise measurements because of the harsh environment and extreme remoteness. The changing dynamics of the Southern Ocean will in turn drive key aspects of our future climate, including how sensitive the Earth will be to further warming and increases in carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, improved observations are crucial to helping scientists understand and predict how our climate will change."
...
"Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is so remote that only 28 human beings have ever set foot on it.

Knut Christianson, a 33-year-old glaciologist at the University of Washington, has been there twice.

A few years ago, Christianson and a team of seven scientists traveled more than 1,000 miles from McMurdo Station, the main research base in Antarctica, to spend six weeks on Thwaites ...

They were mapping a future global disaster. As the world warms, determining exactly how quickly ice melts and seas rise may be one of the most important questions of our time ... If there is going to be a climate catastrophe ... it's probably going to start at Thwaites. The trouble with Thwaites, which is one of the largest glaciers on the planet, is that ...  instead of melting slowly like an ice cube on a summer day, it is more like a house of cards: It's stable until it is pushed too far, then it collapses... Seas will rise about 10 feet in many parts of the world; in New York and Boston, because of the way gravity pushes water around the planet, the waters will rise even higher, as much as 13 feet ... West Antarctica could do to the coastlines of the world what Hurricane Sandy did in a few hours to New York City," explains Richard Alley ... Except when the water comes in, it doesn't go away in a few hours – it stays."
(Why Sea Level Rise May Be The Greatest Threat To Civilization - 6). When the 1.7 feet increases to the point it begins to shut down critical infrastructure, the swamp of deniers will have been the cause instead of being part of the solution:
"Though year‐to‐year and regional variability exist, the underlying trend is quite clear," the report says. "Due to sea level rise, the national average frequency of high tide flooding is double what it was 30 years ago."

The report measured data from tidal gauges at 98 locations along the nation's coasts to see how often water levels rose above a point that typically inundates roads, infiltrates stormwater systems or otherwise disrupts daily life.
(U.S. Coastal Flooding Breaks Records as Sea Level Rises, NOAA Report Shows). Looks like disgorgement may become a house-hold word in the near future (Oilfluenza, Affluenza, and Disgorgement, 2, 3).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

4 comments:

  1. "High-tide flooding in the U.S. is twice what it was 30 years ago, NOAA says" (link)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You forgot the REAL cause of sea level rising - it's all the ROCKS washing into the sea! It must add up to a lot, right? And it's a new phenomenon, right? Probably being caused by all you lefties digging swimming pools! MO BROOKS said so, so it must be true! http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/388161-gop-lawmaker-says-rocks-falling-into-the-ocean-is-causing-higher

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shhhh ....

      Rocks falling out of Mo's head into the ocean could scare Larry and Curly.

      Delete
  3. "The Mekong Delta is one of Earth’s most agriculturally productive regions and is of global importance for its exports of rice, shrimp, and fruit. However, it is one of the world's most vulnerable deltas to the sea level rising. This has caused a mass exodus to urban areas, leaving the regions with less and less farmers. "(Vietnamese farmers are migrating en masse to escape climate change).

    ReplyDelete