The Evolution and Migration of Sea Level Hinge Points - 2

Fig. 1 SLF in Alaska

The damaged climate system is warming the globe, causing flooding, drought, melting ice sheets, melting glaciers, and enhancing fire outbreaks (Meteorologists Note Change, Drought is Killing trees, North Pole Warming, Scribbler - Crazy Cryosphere, West Antarctica Begins to Destabilize).

Fig. 2 SLF in Patagonia

Today, I want to focus on a relatively unknown phenomenon called "sea level fall" (SLF), which the melting and calving ice sheets and glaciers are causing.

It is one of those non-intuitive impacts that scientists talk about (Dr. Mitrovica).

The graphs at Fig. 1 through Fig. 4 show sea level fall near the coast lines of land masses where ice sheets or glaciers are melting.

Fig. 3 SLF in Svalbard

This phenomenon is caused by the loss of ice-mass gravity which releases captured ocean water as the ice melts or calves (The Gravity of Sea Level Change, 2, 3, 4; The Ghost-Water Constant, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

Fig. 4 SLF in Antarctica

The graphic at Fig. 5 is Dr. Mitrovica's way of showing where SLF occurs (dark blue color).

The top section of that graphic shows the coastline near Antarctica (compare with Fig. 4).

The middle section shows Greenland (I skipped that because of the dearth of tide gauge stations @ Greenland).

The bottom section shows glaciers in Alaska, Svalbard, and Patagonia.

The Alaska SLF is graphed at Fig. 1, the Patagonia SLF is graphed at Fig. 2, the Svalbard SLF is graphed at Fig. 3, and the Antarctica SLF is graphed at Fig. 4.

Fig. 5

Each graph is generated by Dredd Blog software that uses the historical data from the the WOD and PSMSL databases.

Currently the future projections are based on IPCC projection equivalents (3 ft. for low end projection, 6 ft. for the high end projection), but unlike the global mean average, the historical data at each location determines the SLC rather than having a "one size fits all" situation (commonly called "global mean average sea level rise").

The graphic at Fig. 6 is the bottom section from Fig. 5, with blue lines added to show where the water goes as it is released from the Alaska cryosphere, the Svalbard cryosphere, and the Patagonia cryosphere areas.

I call this ocean water "ghost-water" because it is not generally known that this ocean water increases sea level rise in other parts of the globe equal in volume to the SLF that results as the ice sheet gravity fades away caused by the ice mass fading away.

Fig.6

If you are interested in the sea level impact that happens beyond the "hinge-point" (where SLF ends and sea level rise begins), check out these posts which go into more detail (Proof of Concept - 3, The Evolution and Migration of Sea Level Hinge Points).

The popular video below goes into more verbal detail about this area of global sea level change, especially in terms of physics as it impacts oceanography.

The previous post in this series is here.

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