if Sea levels rise 10 feet. Would it be equal everywhere, or would some areas be affected more?
In: Planetary Science
**ELI5:** Imagine you’re pouring water into a big, uneven sandbox where some parts are higher and some parts are lower. If you add a lot of water, the whole sandbox will get wetter, but the lowest parts will fill up with water first and foremost. The Earth is a bit like that sandbox. If the sea level rises by 10 feet, not every place will see the water come up the same amount. Some places might get more flooded because they’re lower or because the way the land meets the sea makes the water come up higher.
**Adult Answer:**
Sea level rise is not uniform across the globe due to various factors such as gravitational effects, land elevation changes, and ocean currents. The Earth’s gravitational field, affected by the mass distribution of water and ice, causes sea levels to rise more in some areas than others. For example, as ice melts from glaciers and ice sheets, the reduced gravitational attraction allows water to distribute more evenly across the oceans, raising sea levels further away from the melting ice. Additionally, land subsidence or uplift can affect local sea levels, with some coastal areas experiencing higher relative sea levels due to sinking land. Ocean currents and regional temperature variations also contribute to uneven sea level rise, making the impact location-specific. Therefore, a 10-foot rise in global average sea level would result in varying local sea level changes around the world, with some regions affected more significantly.
Latest Answers