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What potential implications are there for the Bay Area? Anything dire and urgent (like, SF under water)? Not trying to downplay the magnitude of what this imp

What potential implications are there for the Bay Area? Anything dire and urgent (like, SF under water)? Not trying to downplay the magnitude of what this implies about our planet, but curious to know whether I should perhaps make sure I am high above sea level a few years from now...

anigbrowl 12y ago
You could look here: http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ or http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/san-francisco.shtml http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/san-francisco.shtml for a less fine-grained version. One thing to remember is that while mean sea level rises may seem quite small, one also has to factor in tidal forces, which have both daily and lunar (near monthly) cycles. Tidal flooding looks set to be a major problem in the coming years; this report only discusses cities on the east coast of the US but I'm sure it will generate its share of similar problems here: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/impacts/effects-of-tidal-flooding-and-sea-level-rise-east-coast-gulf-of-mexico#.VVaYcvlVhBc http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/impacts/effects-of-tida...
ggchappell 12y ago
In case it isn't clear: the collapse of an ice shelf does not raise sea levels. A ice shelf is floating ice. If it all breaks off and becomes icebergs, then it's still floating. No sea-level change. The worry is because ice shelves block the flow into the ocean of glaciers, which are not floating ice. If some large glaciers flow into the ocean a lot faster, then we can expect an impact on sea levels. However -- and here is the key point that the article leaves out -- we would not expect a significant change in the rate of sea-level rise within the 5-year timeframe they are talking about for the final collapse of the Larsen B ice-shelf remnant. I don't know what timeframe we're talking about. Maybe New York would be in serious trouble by the end of the century; or maybe not. San Francisco, being hilly, has rather less to worry about, I think. ---- Here is a nice SVG map of Antarctica from Wikipedia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Antarctica.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Antarcti... The gray areas are ice shelves (floating ice). The white areas are ice that is on land. The Larsen Ice Shelf is on the left, along the Antarctic peninsula. The division into A, B, C portions is not indicated on this map.

anigbrowl 12y ago

You could look here: http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ or http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/san-francisco.shtml http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/san-francisco.shtml for a less fine-grained version. One thing to remember is that while mean sea level rises may seem quite small, one also has to factor in tidal forces, which have both daily and lunar (near monthly) cycles. Tidal flooding looks set to be a major problem in the coming years; this report only discusses cities on the east coast of the US but I'm sure it will generate its share of similar problems here: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/impacts/effects-of-tidal-flooding-and-sea-level-rise-east-coast-gulf-of-mexico#.VVaYcvlVhBc http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/impacts/effects-of-tida...

ggchappell 12y ago

In case it isn't clear: the collapse of an ice shelf does not raise sea levels. A ice shelf is floating ice. If it all breaks off and becomes icebergs, then it's still floating. No sea-level change. The worry is because ice shelves block the flow into the ocean of glaciers, which are not floating ice. If some large glaciers flow into the ocean a lot faster, then we can expect an impact on sea levels. However -- and here is the key point that the article leaves out -- we would not expect a significant change in the rate of sea-level rise within the 5-year timeframe they are talking about for the final collapse of the Larsen B ice-shelf remnant. I don't know what timeframe we're talking about. Maybe New York would be in serious trouble by the end of the century; or maybe not. San Francisco, being hilly, has rather less to worry about, I think. ---- Here is a nice SVG map of Antarctica from Wikipedia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Antarctica.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Antarcti... The gray areas are ice shelves (floating ice). The white areas are ice that is on land. The Larsen Ice Shelf is on the left, along the Antarctic peninsula. The division into A, B, C portions is not indicated on this map.