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FROM VOLUME 5, NUMBER 7, JULY 1992

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
SEA LEVEL SCIENCE, TRENDS

Item #d92jul37

Two items from Nature, 357(6373), May 7, 1992:

Correspondence concerning the reliability of sea level predictions of climate change models, p. 25.

"Warming of the Water Column in the Southwest Pacific Ocean," N.L. Bindoff (CSIRO, Div. Oceanog., GPO Box 1538 Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia), J.A. Church, 59-62.

Measurements made 22 years apart show that there has been a depth-averaged warming of up to 0.04° C throughout most of the water column below the mixed layer. The corresponding sea level rise between a 300 m depth and the ocean floor caused by expansion is 2-3 cm, consistent with the observed rate of global sea level rise. More measurements are needed before conclusions can be drawn about the global significance of these results.

Item #d92jul38

"Periodicities in Sea Level Changes at Stockholm," R.P. Kane (Inst. Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, IPNE, CP 515, 12210 Sao José dos Campos, SP, Brazil), D. Gobbi, Clim. Change, 21(1), 77-85, May 1992.

The annual mean sea level time series for 1825-1984 has a large long-term negative trend. The detrended series shows significant periodicities ranging from 2.05 to 43 years; some periodicities resemble those seen in the Southern Oscillation.

Item #d92jul39

"A Comparison of Late Holocene and 20th Century Sea Level Trends from the UK and North Sea Region," I. Shennan (Dept. Geog., Univ. Durham, Durham DH1 3HP, UK), P.L. Woodworth, Geophys. J. Intl., 109(1), 96-105, Apr. 1992.

Trends determined from tide gauges and geologic data are generally well correlated. There is no evidence in the region for an acceleration of sea level trends in recent decades.

Item #d92jul40

"3000 Years of Sea Level Change," W.F. Tanner (Geol. Dept., Florida State Univ., Tallahassee FL 32306), Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 73(3), 297-303, Mar. 1992.

Changes in the statistical distribution of beach-sand grain size can be used to deduce sea level fluctuations of 1-3 m over the past few thousand years. Predictions about what sea level will do in the near future should be based on this history, not on the arbitrary, fictitious and unrealistic absolute sea level that appears to underlie various popular forecasts.

Item #d92jul41

"Retention of Greenland Runoff by Refreezing: Implications for Projected Future Sea Level Change," W.T. Pfeffer (INSTAAR, Univ. Colorado, Boulder CO 80309), M.F. Feier, T.H. Illangasekare, J. Geophys. Res., 96(C12), 22,117-22,124, Dec. 15, 1991.

Presents a model which describes the transient process of infiltration, refreezing and runoff of meltwater. Application to Greenland in a future warming climate shows that predictions of runoff-induced sea level rise that ignore the refreezing process could be as much as 5 cm too high over 150 years.