Sea Level Rise

A Geophysical perspective of sea level rise

Sea level rise can most effectively be measured against a solid object like say a rock or a mountain / faultline, icebergs etc. Climate Change in the Anthropocene has however effectively proved that Carbon emissions is causing glacial melt especially at the polar ice caps. The melting of polar ice will raise sea levels globally. The rising sea level will trigger rise in humidity, and thereby increase in extreme weather events in the middle latitudes (Tropics). Increase in extreme weather events  like cyclones, storms squalls, coastal erosion etc will have a deleterious effect on lives livelihoods landscape and livestock. 

One can clearly see the the rise and fall of sea level against the base of the James Bond Island Rock. The shallow seas off Thailand's Andaman Sea coast is a testament to the marine geological history of Planet Earth indeed. Infact all along the coasts of South East Asia karst rock middens record the rise and fall of sea levels through millennia. 

 Every six hours the sea withdraws and then fills up and this manifests as high tide and low tide. Similarly all geological phenomena have cycles ... including Climate Change. Planet Earth has gone through many cycles of Climate Change ... mostly triggered by volcanic explosions and sea mount activity. Terrestrial carbon deposits have a geological montage to pass through to the sea floor where they get compressed into diamond among other things ... and appear back as minerals to be minded on land. In the  millennia before the Industrial Revolution there was no Carbon footprint to blame for Climate Change.

When earthquakes occur land falls into the sea. Then the is a partial rise in sea level caused by subsidence. This cannot be called sea level rise.

 These rocks have ben placed to prevent coastal erosion during monsoons.  Oceanographers swear that there is a distinct swelling of the sea during monsoons.

 Climate Change it is feared will turn the world as we know it upside down. With extreme weather events becoming more frequent and intense extreme weather events everything from sunlight to agricultural yield, fish stock in the seas to the air we breathe might become scarcer. Not just species extinction but the very landscape might be in danger. Not to pain a doomsday prophecy but the stark realities are manifesting as worst fears come true.

 It was sea level rise that separated Asian Elephants from African Elephants after the break up of the super continent Pangaea. Sea level rise separated India from Sri Lanka too. Thus genetic isolation of elephant herds impacted the gene pool and the Sri Lankan elephants gradually lost their tusks.

The Pygmy elephants of Borneo were similarly isolated because of Sea Level rise in the South China Sea. The 1257 Rinjani Samalas Super volcanic eruption in Lombok in Indonesia  triggered massive melting of the polar ice caps leading to sea level rise in the Orient. None can say if it was the 1257 super volcanic explosion triggered sea level rise that led to morphing of the Asian Elephant. It may well have predated the 1257 volcanic event - nevertheless. In the Occident, similarly the  Loki super volcanic explosion of Iceland had triggered unseasonal weather, famine, plague and a near extinction of human kind among many more hydrometeorological disasters. But., coming back to the Borneo Pygmy Elephant ... it was the sea level rise of the South China Sea that isolated herds of Asian Elephants in Borneo. Genetic isolation stunted their growth leading to a very small almost unsustainable gene pool of pygmy elephants that survive in Borneo today. 

 Fisherfolks' livelihood security be in the Philippines or Portugal, is at stake in the day and age of Carbon triggered Climate Change.

 Now this faultline ending abruptly as a cliff in the fjords of Scandinavia makes a good mark to measure sea level rise.

 Floods in the age of mismanaged dams, coupled with the might of Climate Change will be the centre point of our lives in the very near future. No doomsday prophecy. How Dare you # Greta Thurnberg

 Other Creatures Great and Small will pay the price for human induced Carbon emissions triggered Climate Change... #HowDareYou?

 Just investing in renewables is simply not enough. To balance economic growth reforesting the waste lands is a must. Equanimous sustainable economic growth for Humanity's welfare.

 Delicate ecosystems do not have to adapt to man's wanton destruction of his environment. Intelligent Man has to care for delicate ecosystems.

 Apart from poaching gorillas to the brink of extinction, human induced Climate Change is decimating endangered species' habitat. Species extinction is inevitable.

 James bond Island and all the Karst rocks of the shallow seas off Thailand's Andaman Coast are geological records of the Earth's history.

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Pictures:  Pixabay,
Text & Photo captions: Malini Shankar