if Sea levels rise 10 feet. Would it be equal everywhere, or would some areas be affected more?
In: Planetary Science
It will be roughly equal everywhere. All the oceans are connected so if the sea levels rise in one ocean more flows into the other oceans raising the sea levels there equally much.
There are actually some differences in sea level over the world. Gravity is not consistent as the density of the Earths crust varies and also the height of the crust. So the ocean does actually get attracted to the heavier parts of the crust making it technically higher in these areas. There are also some difference between east and west in each ocean as the winds tend to blow more from west to east as well as the tidal waves moves this way. And thirdly the evaporation rates are different in different areas of the ocean making the sea level lower in hotter areas as water is constantly flowing towards these areas. This is especially noticeable where you have a narrow straight connecting two oceans with different temperatures.
If sea levels rise 10 feet then most of these things will still stay the same so you would expect most places to get the same 10 feet of sea level rise. But the straights will get slightly wider and deeper allowing for even more water to flow through them. So places like the Mediterranean ocean will rise more then average. I am not sure if it would be a very measurable difference but there would technically be a difference.
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