The Atlantic Ocean levels have experienced the fastest rise in the past two thousand years
The level of the Atlantic Ocean has been experiencing the fastest rise in history. According to the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it is supposed to be the fastest rise in the past two millenia. The international team of experts engaged in the research also confirmed the connection between sea level rise and climate change.
Since the 19th century, the level of the Atlantic has been experiencing an average rise of 2 milimetres every year. According to the recent study, the level of the seas were reasonably stable between 200 B.C. and 1000 A.D. From the 11th century they started to rise by half a milimetre a year. This took approximately 400 years.
After that, during the so called ‘Little Ice Age’ and its cooler temperatures, another period of stability came, bringing no major fluctuations. However, since the end of the 19th century the level of the oceans have begun to rise again.
“The record-breaking speed of the rise highlights the seriousness of the climate change impact,” says Dalibor Dostal, the director of conservation organization European Wildlife.
In the past hundred years the ocean level has risen approximately by twenty centimetres. According to the estimates of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in the next hundred years to come the oceans will have risen by another 20 to 60 centimetres. The current speed of the rise is about 3 milimetres a year.
