Sea Level Rise Slowed by Water Retention on Land

We know that the polar icecaps are slowly melting, but what we don’t know, is whether that will have as drastic of an impact on ocean levels as was previously thought. Recent studies by NASA have revealed that despite thawing glaciers and ice caps, the rising sea level rate is actually only 80% of what was previously expected. Researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and others from UC Irvine, have found that during the last decade, land masses have taken on additional water, with the total amount being around 3.2 trillion tons. Not only does this change the way that we see the sea level rise, but it also means that previous predictions regarding the depletion of groundwater reserves, might not be correct. Researchers have published a report which goes into detail, providing whole new insights on the Earth’s water cycle.

New measurements from a NASA satellite have allowed researchers to identify and quantify, for the first time, how climate-driven increases of liquid water storage on land have affected the rate of sea level rise.

Read the original article at http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-university-study-shows-rising-seas-slowed-by-increasing-water-on-land .

NASA, University Study Shows Rising Seas Slowed by Increasing Water on Land

New measurements from a NASA satellite have allowed researchers to identify and quantify, for the first time, how climate-driven increases of liquid water storage on land have affected the rate of sea level rise.

A new study by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and the University of California, Irvine, shows that while ice sheets and glaciers continue to melt, changes in weather and climate over the past decade have caused Earth’s continents to soak up and store an extra 3.2 trillion tons of water in soils, lakes and underground aquifers, temporarily slowing the rate of sea level rise by about 20 percent.