Seaports On Top Of The World - 3

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It only takes a comparatively little bit

Sci-fi movies sensationally depict the impact of sea level change (SLC) as impacting us by drowning the Statue of Liberty.

"Unfortunately, global sea levels are going to start rising much faster within the next few decades. While Lady Liberty might not need swim lessons, parts of the United States will see as much as 1–2 feet by 2050—with climate tipping points threatening to multiply the challenges. Read on for more about sea level rise, and what we can do to prepare for the climate realities before us." 

(Sea Level Rise 101). That article does not mention seaports, sea level fall, thermal contraction, or the actual thermal expansion dynamics which is typical of The Warming Science Commentariat - 12 (little wonder that the DoomsDay clock report included them in the 'list of three' as an existential threat Seaports With Sea Level Change - 30). 

Fundamental SLC dynamics should be more important to the mass media because only a small-by-comparison amount of SLC can destroy the dynamics of current civilization:

Some countries will be more severely impacted than others will be when seaport based international sea trade is impacted:

"By volume, more than 95 percent of U.S. international trade moves through the nation's ports and harbors, with about 50 percent of these goods being hazardous materials."

(Seaports With Sea Level Change). Today's appendices feature the same ocean areas using a combined source for temperature and salinity input in contrast with the appendices in a recent Dredd Blog post (On Thermal Expansion & Thermal Contraction - 51).

Those previous appendices are HTML tables with the same names as today's appendices (Arctic,  Equatorial Atlantic, Equatorial Indian, Equatorial Pacific, Mediterranean, North Atlantic, North Indian, North Pacific, South Atlantic, Southern, South Indian, South Pacific).

So, obviously there are differences, but they are not proof that thermal expansion is a major factor, no, it's the opposite that is proven once again.

The totals for the new input configuration are:

Ocean Area count: 12; Total Years of data: 479
Totalthermal expansion/contraction: 180.13 mm
Average thermal expansion/contraction per year: 0.38 mm
(180.13 ÷ 479)
Percent of current 3.6 mm sea level rise per year: 10.45 %
(0.38 ÷ 3.6 x 100)

Today's appendix totals are different because where there was no in situ data available in the WOD database for a zone's year and depth a median value was used (max+min ÷ 2) instead of only the max value for all cases as was done in the previous post's appendices.

But, the purpose remains the same: 

1) to show that temperature change is the foundation of thermal expansion and contraction change (not temperature alone); 

2) thermal expansion and contraction change is not a major contributor to sea level change; and 

3) the melting of the Cryosphere is the main contributor by far.

The previous post in this series is here.