Sea Level Rise

An iceberg lies in the Ross Sea with Mount Erebus in the background near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in November 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Nature Communications - January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - June 15, 2017

Scientists have documented a recent, massive melt event on the surface of highly vulnerable West Antarctica that, they fear, could be a harbinger of future events as the planet continues to warm.

In the Antarctic summer of 2016, the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest floating ice platform on Earth, developed a sheet of meltwater that lasted for as long as 15 days in some places. The total area affected by melt was 300,000 square miles, or larger than the state of Texas, the scientists report.

That’s bad news because surface meltin g could work hand in hand with an already documented trend of ocean-driven melting to compromise West Antarctica, which contains over 10 feet of potential sea level rise.

submitted by Albert Gomez

On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf. Icebridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment on Nov. 18.

nasa.gov - December 1, 2016 - Editor: Sarah Loff

Ice shelves are the floating parts of ice streams and glaciers, and they buttress the grounded ice behind them; when ice shelves collapse, the ice behind accelerates toward the ocean, where it then adds to sea level rise. Larsen C neighbors a smaller ice shelf that disintegrated in 2002 after developing a rift similar to the one now growing in Larsen C.

The IceBridge scientists measured the Larsen C fracture to be about 70 miles long, more than 300 feet wide and about a third of a mile deep. The crack completely cuts through the ice shelf but it does not go all the way across it – once it does, it will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware.

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hrpdcva.gov - July 2013

Effective planning for development and infrastructure near the shore requires understanding various shore processes, including erosion, tidal patterns, and sea level change. There is a significant amount of research documenting both a sustained and long-running trend of sea level rise and that the rate of sea level rise is likely to accelerate. Therefore, it is important for local planners to understand how much sea level rise is projected to occur and at what rate. Understanding the drivers of sea level rise and how they affect sea level rise rates can also help decision-makers tasked with selecting appropriate policy and infrastructure responses.

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Coastal Resiliency: Adapting to Climate Change in Hampton Roads

Buildings near the ocean in North Miami, Fla., a state with a high risk of flooding as sea levels rise, according to a recent report. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Carbon choices determine US cities committed to futures below sea level

CLICK HERE - INTERACTIVE MAP - Surging Seas

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - October 12, 2015

In a new study, a team of scientists who specialize in studying rising seas bring the implications of their research right to the U.S.’s doorstep — calculating just how many American cities and municipalities are at risk of being flooded in the future, as well as how many may already be committed to that fate.