Science Article #15

Can Sea Level Rise and Fall With Lightning Speed?

Berardelli, P. “Can Sea Level Rise and Fall With Lightning Speed?” ScienceNOW Daily News. February 11, 2010. Retreived February 13, 2010 From http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2010/211/3

The fluctuations of ice ages have been quite perplexing as it is amusing for most paleoclimatologists. Some spend lifetimes defining the cycles of these ice ages. In fact, recent study ran into a brick wall in figuring out the behaviors of sea level during the last several ice ages. Inside a coastal cave off the coast of Mediterranean Sea on a Spanish Island called Mallorca, showed some evidence in a dramatic rise in sea level so fast that it is unthinkable to believe that ice can melt that quickly. This evidence was shown on stalactites encrusted with calcite and like bathtub rings, they measured the watermarks on them showing high and low water levels. They measured these encrustations and it indicated that the sea level might have risen 2 meters per century. In geologic time, glaciers melting that fast is probably considered lightning fast.

These findings were not exactly discovered recently but discovered back in 1970s. However, the lack of technology back then could not measure and date them accurately until now. This discovery is strange and mysterious enough to ask some serious questions that might do some rethinking about the earth’s dynamics. In other words, there is still a lot to learn on how Earth and its Cryosphere works.