A study by the University of York found evidence for a period of enhanced pre-industrial sea-level rise of about 2-3 millimeters per year in three locations — Nova Scotia, Maine, and Connecticut, which was largely natural, without any human constructions or man-made factors.
These three locations are partly related to the North Atlantic Oscillation – a large-scale atmospheric pressure see-saw over the North Atlantic region – and to periods of enhanced ice melt in the Arctic, said the authors of the study, whose findings are published in Geophysical Research Letters.
The authors of the study say cities like New York and Boston will have to take into cognizance this natural variability that may affect these cities in the future as well.
The team found sea-level reconstructions based on salt-marsh sediments from the Atlantic coast and from microscopic salt-marsh fossils.
Salt-marshes are good “archives” of sea levels as they contain several meters of sediment which contains data going back hundreds of years.
Faster than the global average
Previous studies have shown that, since the 1950s, rates of sea-level rise along the Atlantic coast of North America were faster than the global average – leading to this region coming to be known as a sea-level rise “hotspot.”
However, lead author Prof Roland Gehrels, from the University of York’s Department of Environment and Geography, said this earlier rapid episode of sea-level rise in the 18th Century wasn’t known before.
To find out what global warming is doing to sea levels today, the team examined the base level from historical times.
“In the 20th century, we see rates of up to three or four millimeters per year, faster than in any century in at least the last 3000 years. In the 18th Century they were slightly slower, but still much quicker than you would expect for the Little Ice Age, partly because the Arctic was relatively warm during the 18th Century,” he noted.
No human factors in the pre-industrial era
It was a pre-industrial phenomenon, so there were no anthropogenic forces – or human influences, he explained. In the 20th century, they might have played a key role but well before the industrialization, those rapid episodes of sea-level rise on the northeast coast of North America in the 18th Century might have been caused due to natural causes, he said.
Read rest at IB Times
And there was no Greenpeace,Sierra Club no Al Gore and No Leonardo DiCaprio and NO HOLLYWOOD
And yet there are still beaches! Amazing! I was told that all the beaches would disappear because carbon, or something.
But the sons-a-beaches persisted.
I do believe N. America, Northern Europe, and other similar latitudes were rather recently covered by miles deep glaciers.
No humans around 20,000 years ago, but the climate warmed without our help and most of the glaciers melted. And life on earth became much more prolific as a result. Why do the Greens not like warmth?
Every period in the Earth’s Climate History when global temperature and carbon content peaked, that is more than double what they are today, then at those time the Earth flourised with life everywhere. There are plenty of graphs on the net proving this but if anyone really wants to learn, then watch the 55 minute lecture by Dan Britt – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yze1YAz_LYM
One word of warning, Britt shows some change due to the advent of farming some 8000 years ago, but then overlooks the Re-greening in China, the Sahara and Spain which are bringing balance back to Nature.
The Sinking Islands stuff that the Climate Alarmists worry so much about reminds me of a episode of Gilligan’s Island where the Professor thinks the island is sinking into the sea it turns out that Gilligan was using the Professors measuring stick to anchor his lobster pots
Was it all the cooking fires of the “First Nations aka indigenous native Americans” that was leading to the sea level rising?