A research revealed that the sea level in New Jersey has been rising each year.
A recent study led by Benjamin P. Horton, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science of the University of Pennsylvania, utilized fossil records of marsh vegetation to reconstruct the changes in sea level along the New Jersey coast going back 10,000 years.
The team's findings confirmed that the state's sea level has risen continuously during that period and that there have been times when high rates of sea level rise coincided with periods of glacial melting. The investigation indicates that sea levels will continue to rise over time, increasing the chances of disruptive flooding, similar to that which happened after hurricane Sandy.
According to Horton, the sea level across the whole of the U.S. Atlantic Coast, including New Jersey, has been rising for the last 10,000 years at different rates. To gain insight into the variations in the previous sea levels of New Jersey, the team compiled and standardized data from multiple studies conducted during the past few decades. An analysis of the data revealed three distinct periods in which the rate of sea level rise varied: from 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, the sea level raised an average of 4 mm per year; from 6,000 to 2,000 years ago, 2 mm per year; and from 2,000 years ago until 1900, and 1.3 mm per year.
Horton noted that the sea level rise of 1.3 mm per year may serve as a baseline for future flood-risk planning and that the 4-mm rate of rise previously seen thousands of years ago may also be relevant. He also pointed out that the melting of ice sheets on Earth 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, which contributed to the high rates of rise, is quite similar to the present-day melting of Greenland and Antarctica. This melting of ice could trigger similar rates of sea level rise.
Horton also emphasized that 4 mm may not be the ceiling for rates of rise. Ice sheets do not respond linearly to temperature rise; instead, they go through thresholds, which could lead to far higher rates of sea level rise. Moreover, local factors, such as dredging in the Delaware Bay or groundwater extraction in the Atlantic City region, could also drive the rate of rise much higher than 4 mm per year by increasing tides or sediment compaction.
The results of this study were featured in ScienceDaily.
