Posted on 12/02/2010 5:02:44 PM PST by PROCON
It's safe to assume the author has never actually been to a beach.
This is supposed to be due to the varying density of seawater caused by variation in temperature and salinity. The article states, "In the Indian Ocean, the sea level is about 100 meters (330 feet) below the average, while the waters around Iceland are 60 meters above the average." That does seem like a lot. I find the density of seawater density due to salinity is considered to vary between 1020 and 1029 kg/m3, so a 10.29 km column of the former would weigh as much as a 10.20 km column of the latter, but this only gives me 90 meters, so I have questions too! ... but I think this is the idea.
The island of Santorini has the strangest feature that I never figured out. You can get off a ship in the port and drive up switchbacks several hundred feet. Then you drive straight across a plane to a beach on the other side of the island. I suppose the only explanation is that the plane is actually a downward slope, but it doesn't seem like it.
I have no particular argument with the slide show. If it seeks to emphasize the compications and uncertainties in the matter, I think this is entirely justified. I am alarmed by the conversion of such tenuous conclusions and predictions into absolutist and even hysterical propaganda campaigns, and of course it goes much further than that.
WRT earth’s rotation, I suppose this refers to the slowing rate of same. This slowing is of course, very slow. The nominal rotation rate causes an equatorial bulge of about 20 miles, and this value is proportional to the rotation rate itself. So, a dimunition of say, 1 second, in the length of the day would cause a decrease of 1/86400 * 20 miles or about .4 meters. But the rate of slowing is given as about 2 ms/day/century, which means it will take about 50,000 years to create this .4 meter difference. Well, that’s not so long! If we go back to the dinosaurs ... my goodness!
I believe the explanation is as you suggest. The perception of slope is very subjective. Even in routine highway driving it is difficult to tell when you reach the peak of crest, and when you see the upslope ahead of you when driving a downslope it looks much steeper than it seems when you drive up it. Conversely, the downslope in the rearview mirror looks steeper than it felt when you were just coming down it.
I’ve experienced the same things while biking in mountains, especially through canyons. Your eyes tell you one thing about whether you are climbing or decending. And your legs tell you otherwise. The next time I do it, I plan to tape a small carpenter’s level to my top tube.
I mentioned earth rate because there are people who calculate mean sea level (with the sloshing averaged out) by looking at the rotation rate.
I can’t find the reference now, but basically the mean sea level changes are as expected (1 to 3 mm per year) with one anomaly, and that was a sea level drop in the 1970’s attributed to evaporation.
I share your concern that basic science has become a propaganda tool. Well, maybe not “has become”, it probably always was, but communication and travel advances have given us a global reach so the consequences and stakes are larger.
In other words Gaia will punish evil avaricious capitalist nations like South Korea with rising seas and inundated coastlines while sparing countries with enlightened ledership pursuing a reduced human population through mass starvation like North Korea.
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