Gulf Coasts Break Records as Sea Level Rise Projected to 40 Inches

The Gulf Coasts are expected to experience a sea level rise of 40 inches by the end of the century, breaking previous records.

According to a recent study led by researchers at Tulane University, the US Southeast and Gulf coastlines are seeing sea levels that have been rapidly accelerating and breaking records over the past 12 years.

Sea Level Rise

According to the study, scientists have seen rates of sea level rise of roughly half an inch every year since 2010. They explain the acceleration as the result of the interaction between natural climate variability and man-made climate change.

According to Sönke Dangendorf, an assistant professor in Tulane University's Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering, these rapid rates of rising sea levels are unexpected for at least the 20th century. They have also been three times higher than the global average during the same time period. Dangendorf is the lead author of the study.

According to Tulane News, the authors examined a range of in-person and satellite measurements going back to 1900 to identify the specific causes of the acceleration.

According to Noah Hendricks, an undergraduate student at Old Dominion University, their team thoroughly investigated the various causes, including vertical land motion, air pressure, and ice-mass loss, but none of them could fully account for the current rate. Hendricks is one of the co-authors of the study.

Instead, they discovered that the acceleration is a broad signal that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico coast up to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina as well as through the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Seas. Hendricks explains that this suggests that there are changes in the ocean's density and circulation.

Over the past 12 years, the Subtropical Gyre as a whole has expanded primarily because of ongoing warming changes in wind patterns. According to Tulane News, warmer water masses require more space, which raises the sea level.

Man-Made Climate Change

According to the researchers, the recent acceleration resulted from the unfortunate coincidence of signals related to human-caused climate change and an apex in weather-related variability that persisted for several years. They conclude that in the upcoming decades, the rates will probably return to the more reasonable values suggested by climate models.

However, this is not an excuse to declare the situation resolved, noted Torbjörn Törnqvist, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University. He added that, particularly in Texas and Louisiana, where the land is sinking quickly, these vulnerable coastlines have been further stressed by the high rates of sea-level rise. Törnqvist is also one of the co-authors of the study.

Dangendorf emphasized once more that the findings show how urgent the climate crisis is for the Gulf region. To successfully address these challenges, interdisciplinary and cooperative efforts are required, SciTech Daily reports.

The study by Dangendorf's team, which includes Hendricks, Törnqvist, and several others, has been recently published in the journal Nature Communications.