Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
It seems illogical that the current sea level rise is due to human activities, whereas the
previous hundreds of sea level rises were not. In fact, sea level rises and falls are used
by petroleum geologists to understand the 3D shape of potential oil and gas reservoirs.
Geologists have known about sea level rises and falls and climate change for hundreds of
years,andthecommunityhasnowonlyjustwokenuptothefactthattheplanetisdynamic.
In what can only be regarded as religious narcissism, climate catastrophists now claim that
sea level rise, ice sheet melting, torrential rains, drought, hurricanes, and any other severe
weather event is due to the activity of affluent Westerners. The past shows a very different
story.
Land level changes
There can be no understanding of sea level rise and fall without an understanding of local
land level rises and falls. Scandinavia, Scotland and Canada are rising because, during the
last glaciation, ice sheets covered these areas and pushed down the land. Now that the ice
has melted, there is rebound and the land is rising. If land rises, other areas of land may
sink, such as Holland. Land rises in mountains as a result of compression (e.g. Himalayas)
whereas, when there is extension or pulling apart, land sinks (e.g. Lake Eyre). The world's
oceans formed by extension and, because the oceans are still growing at the mid-ocean
ridges, the land masses at the edges of oceans are uplifted into hills or mountain chains
(e.g. Great Dividing Range).
These changes are very rapid. For example, the ancient port of Ephesus in Western
Anatolia is now fifteen kilometres inland and seven metres above sea level. The ancient
Lycian city of Simena on the southern coast of Anatolia is now underwater. Coastal areas
may sink due to fluids such as water, gas and oil being expelled from unconsolidated
sedimentsduringsedimentloading,traffic,buildings,human-inducedvibrations,andtides.
Any local government that brings in legislation to restrict coastal building by using
international sea level projections has only used half the evidence, albeit questionable
anyway, as local land level rises and falls are far more profound that long-term sea level
rises and falls. The Maldives is 70 centimetres higher now than in the 1970s and eastern
Australia is two metres higher than 4,000 years ago. Without a detailed knowledge of local
land rises and falls, subsidence, erosion and sedimentation, global sea level predictions for
coastal planning are only unfounded speculation.
Coral atolls
Charles Darwin showed in 1842 that as sea level rises, coral atolls grow and keep up with
the sea level rise. His suggestion was that coral atolls growing on top of a volcano keep
growing at a very rapid rate as the volcano subsides. The sinking of an island has the same
effect as a sea level rise. It is a relative sea level rise. Darwin's theory was validated after
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