Nach unserem Streifzug an der US-Ostküste geht es heute zur Westküste. Der Pazifik ist Heimat des El Nino und der Pazifischen Dekadischen Oszillation (PDO). Wenig überraschend haben auch sie einen Einfluss auf den Meeresspiegel, und zwar zyklisch. Entsprechend müssen diese Effekte erkannt und herausgerechnet werden, wenn man Kurzzeittrends diskutiert. Hamlington und Kollegen konnten 2015 zeigen, dass diese Effekte bis zu 20 cm ausmachen können, und dies innerhalben von wenigen Jahren. Hier der Abstract aus dem Journal of Geophysical Research:
The effect of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on U.S. regional and coastal sea level
Although much of the focus on future sea level rise concerns the long-term trend associated with anthropogenic warming, on shorter time scales, internal climate variability can contribute significantly to regional sea level. Such sea level variability should be taken into consideration when planning efforts to mitigate the effects of future sea level change. In this study, we quantify the contribution to regional sea level of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Through cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function analysis (CSEOF) of the long reconstructed sea level data set and of a set of U.S. tide gauges, two global modes dominated by Pacific Ocean variability are identified and related to ENSO and, by extension, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. By estimating the combined contribution of these two modes to regional sea level, we find that ENSO can contribute significantly on short time scales, with contributions of up to 20 cm along the west coast of the U.S. The CSEOF decomposition of the long tide gauge records around the U.S. highlights the influence of ENSO on the U.S. east coast. Tandem analyses of both the reconstructed and tide gauge records also examine the utility of the sea level reconstructions for near-coast studies.
An der US-Westküste gibt es einige Gebiete mit Hebung, z.B. in Nordkalifornien (siehe blaue Punkte hier). Die University of California – Santa Barbara gab 2015 hierzu eine Pressemitteilung heraus. Im allergrößten Teil Kaliforniens stiegt der Meeresspiegel jedoch gemäß dem weltweiten Durchschnitt (siehe grüne Punkte hier). eine Studie von Reynolds und Simms, die im Oktober 2015 in den Quaternary Science Reviews erschien, dokumentierte nun den kalifornischen Meeresspiegel Anstieg der letzten 4000 Jahre. In Südkalifornien 0,8 mm/Jahr und in Zentralkalifornien 1,3 mm/Jahr:
Late Quaternary relative sea level in Southern California and Monterey Bay
Few records of late Quaternary relative sea level (RSL) are available for the Pacific coast of North America south of San Francisco Bay, a region where RSL data would be particularly useful for constraining vertical rates of tectonic motion. This paper provides the first regional, uplift-corrected late Quaternary RSL history for southern California derived from a compilation of 132 previously published and unpublished radiocarbon ages from nearshore, estuarine, and freshwater deposits in sediment cores from coastal southern California. We also provide a local, uplift-corrected RSL history for Monterey Bay, central California, generated from 48 radiocarbon ages from Elkhorn Slough and surrounding environments. Our resulting compilations show rapid sea-level rise from 15 ka which begins to decelerate to present mean sea level (PMSL) between 6 and 8 ka. Late Holocene (<4 ka) sea-level rise averaged 0.8 ± 0.3 mm a−1 in southern California and 1.3 ± 0.19 mm a−1 along Monterey Bay in central California. Both rates of late Holocene RSL rise calculated are lower than recent RSL rates from southern California (∼1.61 ± 0.34 to 2.4 ± 1.04 mm a−1) and Monterey Bay (1.49 ± 0.95 mm a−1), derived from uplift-corrected, 20th century tide gauge data. This new RSL data fills geographical gaps in relative sea-level histories, as well as provides important datums for local tectonic processes.
- •Compilation of uplift-corrected sea-level data for central and southern California.
- •132 radiocarbon ages from southern California; 48 ages from Monterey Bay.
- •Rapid sea-level rise from 15 ka which begins to decelerate between 6 and 8 ka.
- •Late Holocene (<4 ka) average sea-level rise 0.8 ± 0.3 mm a−1 (S. California).
- •Late Holocene (<4 ka) average sea-level rise 1.3 ± 0.19 mm a−1 (Monterey Bay).