Door Joe Romm, Climate Progress, April 16, 2009The prestigious journal Nature is publishing important new research: 'Rapid sea-level rise and reef back-stepping at the close of the last interglacial highstand' (subs. required, abstract below). As Nature explains in a summary and author interview (subs. requiered):
Some consequences of climate change are already unfolding. Glaciers and ice sheets are melting, and sea levels are rising as a result. However, scientists aren’t certain by how much the rate of sea-level rise might accelerate; current predictions for increases until 2100 range from 0.3 centimetres to 1.4 centimetres per year. But Paul Blanchon, a geoscientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Cancún, and his colleagues have learned that a sudden, catastrophic increase of more than 5 centimetres per year over a 50-year stretch is possible. On page 881, they describe their discovery that a sea-level jump of 2–3 metres already happened about 121,000 years ago. Blanchon tells Nature how and why it could recur.
Read more... on climateprogress.org
Also see:
New warning over 'catastrophic' sea level rise, scientists claim
By Richard Alleyne, Telegraph.co.uk, April 15, 2009
Zondvloed doodde koraal; Plotselinge sprong in zeeniveau lijkt ook deze eeuw mogelijk
By Elmar Veerman, Noorderlicht, April 17, 2009 (in Dutch)
Photo: Coral Reef Initiative
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