Huge Sea Level Rise Possible This Century

A canal cut out of fossilized coral at a theme park in Yucatan reveals evidence of a rapid increase in sea level 121,000 years ago, researchers in Mexico say.

Global sea levels have the potential to rise up to 10 feet in far less than a century due to climate change, according to a recent study of coral beds in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

Writing in the journal Nature, Paul Blanchon of the University of Mexico says that he believes such a scenario is possible within the next 100 years, reshaping coastlines while also causing economic and social chaos.

During a study of an area that had been excavated for a theme park, Blanchon and colleagues found evidence of sudden jumps in ocean water marks preserved in the fossilized remains of coral reefs.

The team determined that a dramatic rise in sea levels occurred 121,000 years ago during the last interglacial period. Most climate experts had assumed that significant sea level rises occur over millennia.

But the coral record clearly shows that ocean levels rose 6.6 to 10 feet within 50 to 100 years, Blanchon writes.

Such a rise today due to melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets would inundate coastal cities like London, New York, Tokyo and Calcutta.

“The potential for sustained rapid ice loss and catastrophic sea-level rise in the near future is confirmed by our discovery of sea-level instability,” writes Blanchon and his co-authors.

Photo: Paul Blanchon