East Coast Faces Rising Seas From Slowing Gulf Stream  					
-  							Published: February 12th, 2013
 
								By 
Michael D. Lemonick 							
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 					 					  					 					 						 							 						 							 										  						  						  						  						  						 							 	Experts on the sea level rise triggered by climate change have long known that it will proceed 
faster in some places than others.  The mid-Atlantic coast of the U.S. is one of them, and the reason — in  theory, anyway — is that global warming should slow the flow of the Gulf  Stream as it moves north and then east toward northern Europe.
  	Now there’s a smoking gun that appears to validate the theory. A 
study in the February 
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans  ties the measured acceleration of sea level rise in this area to a  simultaneous slowdown in the flow of the Gulf Stream. “There have been  several papers showing (sea level rise) acceleration,” said lead author  Tal Ezer, of Old Dominion University’s 
Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography. “This new paper confirms the hypothesis for why it’s happening.” 
  	 								 																			
	
	
	
		
		
		
		
	
	
 																		When higher seas are pushed ashore by a major event like Hurricane Sandy, the impact can be devastating. 								 							
  	Even without faster-than-average sea level rise, America’s 
East Coast would be at high risk.  On average, scientists have projected that the oceans should rise by  about 3 feet by 2100, inundating low-lying land, contaminating water  supplies and undermining roads, airports, port facilities and power  plants. 
Add the storm surges  that come with hurricanes and other severe weather, and the danger gets  even worse. A worldwide average of 8 inches of sea level rise since  1900 has already put 
millions of Americans at risk;  3 feet more will greatly multiply that risk; and the even higher levels  that Americans could see will be a very bitter icing on top of that  already unpleasant cake.
  	The slowing of the Gulf Steam is not the only reason the U.S. coast  will see higher sea level than the world average in coming decades, Ezer  said. In some places, the land itself is slowly sinking as it readjusts  to the disappearance of continental ice sheets more than 10,000 years  ago.
  	But that process can’t explain why sea level rise should actually be speeding up, as a report in the 
Journal of Coastal Research documented in October 2012. 
Another study,  which appeared in Nature Climate Change in June 2012, showed the same  thing, and suggested that a Gulf Stream slowdown could be a contributing  factor. Ezer’s 
own paper in 
Geophysical Research Letters in September 2012, documented the phenomenon in Chesapeake Bay, and once again, suggested the Gulf Stream’s possible role.
  	 								 																			
	
	
	
		
		
		
		
	
	
 																		Storm surge from Hurricane Sandy paralyzed the Hoboken, N.J., PATH system in last October's storm. 								 							
  	What makes this new study different is that it includes actual  measurements of the Gulf Stream’s flow, from instruments mounted on  underwater cables that stretch across the 
Florida Strait.  It also uses satellite altimeter data to document changes in the height  of the ocean from one side of the Gulf Stream to the other. Normally,  the northeasterly flow of the stream literally pulls water away from the  coast.
  	“It keeps coastal sea level a meter or a meter and a half lower than  the rest of the ocean,” Ezer said. In recent years, however, the  satellites show that the midpoint of the Gulf Stream doesn’t have as  high an elevation as it used to, and that the edges aren’t quite as low —  again, evidence that the stream itself is starting to slow down.
  	Theory says this is just what should be happening. Ordinarily, the Gulf  Stream brings warm surface water from the tropics up along the U.S.  coast, and then across to the eastern North Atlantic, where it cools and  sinks to the bottom of the sea. The cold bottom water then flows south  to the tropics, where it gradually warms, rises to the surface, and  begins flowing north again. This constant flow, which meanders through  all of the world’s oceans is sometimes called the 
global ocean conveyor belt, and the section that operates in the North Atlantic is called the 
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.
  	In a warming world, two things happen to throw a monkey wrench into the  conveyor belt. First, melting ice, mostly from Greenland, dilutes the  surface waters where the Gulf Stream reaches its northernmost extent.  Since fresh water is less dense than salty water, the water has a more  difficult time sinking to begin its journey southward. Second, the  surface water is warmer than it used to be, and since warm water is less  dense than cold water, this just adds to the problem.
  	Put the two together and you start to jam up the works, with the result  that the whole conveyor belt slows down. And the water along the  Atlantic coast of the U.S. begins to rise at an accelerating rate. While  scientists expect sea level to rise by about 3 feet over the next 90  years or so, in places like New York City and Norfolk, Va., it could be  significantly more. New York, where sea level is already a foot higher  than it was in 1900, was just reminded of what happens when higher seas  are pushed ashore by a major event like 
Superstorm Sandy.
  	Add several more feet of sea level to that destructive equation, and the potential destruction is difficult to imagine. 
  	
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