Sea Level Rise A Global Problem in Your Backyard

ESI

When sea level rises

How does the slope of the land influence the loss of shoreline?

west

east

What happens to the island?

Steeper slope

Gentle slope

Maryland Shoreline

Most biological productive areas are between present sea level and 1.5 meters above.

A one foot rise in sea level will inundate about one mile of shore!
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications/impacts/sealevel/maps/maps.html

How can sea level change?

Can rise or fall

How do we know sea level changed?

World-wide tide gauges with over 100 yrs of data
Local geological evidence such as finding marsh deposits offshore

Tide Gauges in the Bay

What do they tell us?
Annapolis
7150
7200

Baltimore

sea level, mm

sea level, mm

7100 7050 7000 6950 6900 6850 6800 6750 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980

7150 7100 7050 7000 6950 6900 6850 6800 6750 1880

y = 3.5195x + 36.12 R2 = 0.8579

1990 2000 2010

y = 3.1409x + 840.94 R2 = 0.9039

1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

year

year

Hampton Roads
7300 7250 7200 7150 7100 7050 7000 6950 6900 6850 6800 6750 1920
7250

Solomons Island

sea level, mm

sea level ,mm

7200 7150 7100 7050 7000 6950 6900 1930

y = 4.3933x - 1602.8 R2 = 0.8762

1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

y = 3.4338x + 303.08 R2 = 0.8287

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

year

year

3-4 mm/year or 30-40 cm/century increase in sea level

What is different about Stockholm compared to the Bay and world in general?

What causes sea level to change?

http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/psmsl_individual_stations.html (save as text file, space separated to load into Excel)

Tide gauge increase due to climate warming present sea level

decrease due to climate cooling

Tide gauge decrease due to land rising increase due to land subsidence present sea level

Tide gauge What about an area with excessive sediment input, does sea level change? present sea level

Sea level remains constant, the container holding the water (oceans) is very large.

Relative Sea Level Change

Climate warming
Glacial ice melts and seawater volume expands

Climate cooling
More glacial ice forms and seawater volume contracts

Land rebound (rising)

Rebound of land due to former glaciation and removed

Land subsidence (sinking)

Withdrawal of groundwater or petroleum

In the Chesapeake Bay region

World-wide sea level increase due to global warming thermal expansion of seawater and glacial ice melting

Land subsidence, especially the eastern shore, due to groundwater withdrawal for agriculture
Both contribute to a relative sea level rise

Sharps Island at month of the Choptank River

What happened to the island?
4.0

Sharp's Island Land Area

Area, km2

3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 Year 1850 1900 1950 2000

From S.P. Leatherman, formerly of UMCP Geography

Sharps Island It isn't no more!

aerial view

Sea level rise

side view

In 1962 the island vanished in a winter storm!

Increase in erosion of island