1. Sea Level Rise – A Global Problem in Your Backyard ESI

2. What happens to the island? When sea level rises…… How does the slope of the land influence the loss of shoreline? Gentle slope Steeper slope west east

3. http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications/impacts/sealevel/maps/maps.html Most biological productive areas are between present sea level and 1.5 meters above. Maryland Shoreline A one foot rise in sea level will inundate about one mile of shore!

4. How can sea level change? World-wide tide gauges with over 100 yrs of data How do we know sea level changed? Can rise or fall Local geological evidence such as finding marsh deposits offshore

5. Tide Gauges in the Bay 3-4 mm/year or 30-40 cm/century increase in sea level What do they tell us?

6. What is different about Stockholm compared to the Bay and world in general? What causes sea level to change? http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/psmsl_individual_stations.html http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/psmsl_individual_stations.html (save as text file, space separated to load into Excel)

7. present sea level Tide gauge increase due to climate warming decrease due to climate cooling

8. present sea level Tide gauge decrease due to land rising increase due to land subsidence

9. present sea level Tide gauge What about an area with excessive sediment input, does sea level change? Sea level remains constant, the container holding the water (oceans) is very large.

10. Climate warming Climate cooling Land rebound (rising) Land subsidence (sinking) Relative Sea Level Change Glacial ice melts and seawater volume expands More glacial ice forms and seawater volume contracts Rebound of land due to former glaciation and removed Withdrawal of groundwater or petroleum

11. World-wide sea level increase due to global warming – thermal expansion of seawater and glacial ice melting Land subsidence, especially the eastern shore, due to groundwater withdrawal for agriculture Both contribute to a relative sea level rise In the Chesapeake Bay region…

12. Sharp’s Island at month of the Choptank River What happened to the island? From S.P. Leatherman, formerly of UMCP Geography

13. Sharp’s Island – It isn't no more! Increase in erosion of island Sea level rise aerial view side view In 1962 the island vanished in a winter storm!