Melting ice now main driver of rising sea levels

PARIS (AFP)

Earlier research had shown that sea levels crept up and average of 3.1 millimetres (0.12 inches) per year from 1993 to 2003.

The new study, drawing on data from two new observational systems, shows that thermal expansion — which is cyclical over periods measured in decades — essentially stopped after 2003.

But sea levels continued to rise, though at the slightly diminished rate of 2.5 millimetres (0.1 inches) per year.

“During the last decade, Antarctica and Greenland only contributed about 0.5 mm (0.02 inches) per year to rising sea levels whereas today it is about 1.0 mm (0.04 inches) per year,” said Anny Cazenave, a scientist at France’s National Centre for Space Studies and lead author of the paper.

AFP