![]() ![]() “The same thing is true for several of other factors that influence sea level, such as the mass of the ocean, the salinity, and how much water is stored on land.” We have satellites and other tools that have measured that,” said Ben Hamlington, the current lead of NASA’s sea level change team. “We can tell you how much the ocean has warmed in recent decades, and how much more space the water takes up. Where the water will ultimately slosh over the edge of the tub is influenced by many things, making it difficult to say where the overtopping will occur.”ĭespite the complexities, the scientific understanding of the factors that control sea level has improved dramatically in recent decades, as have measurements of past sea level change and projections of future change. “In reality, it’s more like a spinning bathtub that’s changing shape, moving up and down, and has water pouring into and out of different drains and over the sides. “People tend to think that sea level is like a bathtub with the water level simply rising and falling depending on how much water is coming out of the faucet,” said paleoclimatologist Anders Carlson of the Oregon Glaciers Institute. It's an incredibly complicated set of interdependent calculations. The goal is to project when, where, and how much seas are likely to rise in the coming decades and centuries. Ten thousand years later, with seas now rising because of global warming, scientists are combing through an array of data and building increasingly detailed models to understand the processes that drive regional and local changes in sea level. ![]() Some lowlands flooded and formed inland basins like the Champlain Sea. ![]() ![]() Toward the end of the last Ice Age, as mile-thick glaciers weighed down the land surface and then melted, parts of New England and eastern Canada became inundated by water. Editor’s Note: Be sure to read the other parts of this story for more background on the Charlotte Whale and uncertainty in sea level rise projections. ![]()
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