By: Mike Crewe
Sea Levels
 Terminology
 Melting Ice
 Global Warming
 The Moon
 How Much is it Really Rising?
 Effects on Land
 Future Damage
 What we can do.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10085373@N08/1876984873/
Jargon
 Ice Age – Period of time where large scale Ice sheets
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exist in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere
Glacier – Big, slow moving, mass of Ice.
Ice Sheet – Large amount of Glacier Ice (>20,000
miles²)
Ice Shelf – Glacier/Ice sheet that flows into the water
Sea Ice – Frozen ocean water
Albedo – an objects ability to diffusely reflect light
King Tide/Spring Tide – Very high tide
Neap Tide – Very low tide
Melting Ice
 Vast majority of freshwater locked away in Ice Sheets
and Glaciers
- Antarctica’s Ice sheets alone contain enough water
to raise the sea level 57 meters.
 Sea Ice doesn’t raise the sea level
 North Pole – Ice surrounded by land
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/sea_level_rise.html
 Antarctica – Land Surrounded by ice
- More Ice keeps breaking off and melting, less than is
precipitated onto the mainland
http://www.greendiary.com/images/effect_of_global_warming_on_west_antarctic_ice_sheet_.jpg
Ekstroem Ice Shelf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Shelf-ice_edge_hg.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Glacier-ice_shelf_interactions.svg
Hot things expand?
 Its true!
 Thermal Expansion – As objects absorb heat, they
expand
Water
Temp (° C)
Percent Volume
Increase by 1° C
Temp Change.
10
.0088%
20
.0207%
40
.0385%
• Water is most dense at 4° C
•There’s approximately 50,000,000 cubes
km of water in the surface layer of the
ocean
•If 1 Liter of 20° C was heated 1° C, its
volume would increase by .21 mm
•Translate that to the whole ocean
Tides
 Caused by the Moon (and
Sun)
 Raise and lower water
levels
 Spring Tide/Neap Tides
combined with raises in
sea levels = dangerous
 Floods/Draughts land
http://www.softekinc.net/images/jw_moon_yankee_rcx_co
lor.jpg
Bay of Fundy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bay_of_Fundy_High_Tide.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bay_of_Fundy_Low_Tide.jpg
Why’s that happen?
http://www.mbgnet.net/salt/sandy/indexfr.htm
Raise per Year
 Ocean rise changes depending on where you are
 Average about 1.8mm per year
 Can change based on a number of factors
 Estimated to reach values of 90-880 mm or rise over
the next century (only the latter by substantial glacier
melt)
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Recent_Sea_Level_Rise_png
Damage to land
Tuvalu and London
In the same sinking boat.
http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/rising-seas.html
Look Familiar?
Summary
 Glaciers be meltin, yo
 Thermal expansion of water is the leading cause of the
sea rise currently
 Tides can amplify the effects of raised sea levels
 Where would all the people displaced by ruined land
and homes go?
 Go green!
http://bristolgreenparty.org.uk/images/green_logo.jpg
Works Cited
 Flannery, T. (2005). The Weather Makers: How We Are Changing
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the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth. Canada:
HarperCollins.
http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/ Nov. 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/ Nov. 2008
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/Resour
ceCenterPublicationsSeaLevelRiseIndex.html Nov. 2008
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/sea_lev
el_rise.html Nov. 2008
http://epa.gov/climatechange/effects/coastal/slrreports.html
Nov. 2008
http://www.mbgnet.net/salt/sandy/indexfr.htm Nov. 2008
Williams, N. 2007. New fears on sea-level rise. Current Biology,
Vol. 17, Issues 15, R572.