Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ancient Corals May Provide Record of Rapid Sea Level Rise

Photo: ANCIENT REEF: The creation of this water park exposed reefs that grew roughly 121,000 years ago, allowing scientists to study sea level rise during that warm period. COURTESY OF PAUL BLANCHON

From Scientific American:

Ancient reefs recently exposed in Mexico show that sea levels can rise by as much as 10 feet in half a century

With Greenland's glaciers melting and on the move while vast ice sheets in Antarctica continue to shatter, the proportion of water in the seas continues to grow. And with the climate at the poles expected to continue to warm rapidly in coming decades, many researchers are trying to determine how much and how quickly sea levels might rise. Now newly excavated reefs in Mexico may have provided an answer: high and fast.

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