The global sea level rise by about 23 centimeters between the years 1901 and 2025. The rate is continuously increasing. As of the satellite data received, the annual increase in the sea level has doubled from 2.1 mm in the year 1993 to 4.5 mm in the year 2023.
What has been revealed in the year 2024?
According to the reports shared by NASA, the sea level rise in the year 2024 was of about 0.59 centimeters, which was more than the anticipated rise of 0.43 cm. Two-thirds of this increase came from thermal expansion of water as the temperature of the oceans reached its dramatic heights, undoing the previous years’ trend of melting ice.
Where is the water coming from?
The warming of the oceans causes the seawater to expand, while the melting of the glaciers and ice caps adds a lot of new water to them, thus forming a new volume. There is also shrinkage happening to the glaciers located outside of the ice caps including Greenland and Antarctica in total contributing over 1 mm per year.
What is the significance of the speed?
Deltas and low-lying coasts may start to drown once rise reaches 5-10 millimetres a year, and an acceleration of about 1 millimetre per decade brings that range closer. That spells sinking cities and sinking islands.
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