[Coral-List] Fw: Chagos MPA - Continuing international dispute overboundaries

Ulf Erlingsson ceo at lindorm.com
Wed Sep 29 10:13:24 EDT 2010


Let me point out that the argument that atolls will sink due to sea  
level rise due to global warming fails to take into account the  
geomorphological mechanisms by which atolls are created and grow.  
They grow, slowly, through coral reef growth (as should be no news to  
anyone on this list), through littoral processes, and through  
chemical precipitation, i.e., when the water gets supersaturated with  
respect to CaCO2 the calcium is precipitated in layers on ooid sand  
grains, eventually building up large land masses such as the Bahamas.

The problem is only when the sea level rises quicker than these  
processes can keep up with. However, the predicted rise in sea level  
is much smaller than the quickest and largest sea level rise in the  
recent past. See http://erlingsson.com/authorship/CIS2GOM.html

Of course, that event did drown large areas that are now sea floor,  
but others managed to remain above water. A question of interest is,  
naturally, what lessons we can learn from that event.

Ulf

On 2010-09-28, at 22:41, Douglas Fenner wrote:

> But those same atolls may not be
>  inhabited much longer, due to sea level rise.




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