What are the main causes of sea level rises?

Answer 1

A:Actually, the main causes of sea level rise is: the polar ice caps melting faster than it was expected and thermal expansion. A:There are two types of sea level rise. Eustatic is caused by putting water in (thru rivers, from rainfall or ice melting) or taking it out (evaporation) and isostatic is caused by the earth's surface rising and falling, which makes the vessel holding the water larger or smaller. A:Sea levels also rise as a result of global warming. Water expands as it becomes warmer, so global warming heats the ocean and cause the water to expand. The loss of glacial ice (but not sea ice) is another contributor to rising sea levels. These events have resulted in a rise of 20 centimetres over the course of the twentieth century. As recently as 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change predicted a further rise of 59 centimetres for the twenty first century, but recent data has now resulted in the United Nations Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program to revise this prediction upwards, to 0.9-1.5 metres. A:

Interestingly enough the current sea level rise is quite a bit more than 50 cm. The sea levels have been rising almost non stop for several thousands of years. This is because the planet has been warming for thousands of years non stop. The Arctic has indeed been losing 3.4% of the ice mass for the past few decades. This is primarily sea ice which has little, if any negative effect on sea levels. The Antarctic has lost some land based ice over the past several decades. This ice volume has been made up by sea ice, but land ice melting is far more liable for sea level rise and sea ice can not make up for this land ice loss. Remember, that we are coming out of an ice age, so to lose land ice is a very normal event. Man may be contributing to the overall sea level rise through our possible contribution to the current warming cycle, but we do not have enough evidence scientifically to make this political statement.