Ocean Levels Rose Faster in the 20th Century than in the Previous 2,800 Years

A new study has highlighted an acceleration in the rise of global sea levels over the past 3 millennia, showing a dramatic increase in those levels over the 20th century.

This new study, conducted at Rutgers University, charted sea level increases over the past 28 centuries, using geological data gathered from marshes, coral atolls and archaeological sites. When compiled, the data showed that sea level increases not only accelerated in the 20th century, but that this acceleration has increased even further since the 1990s.

"The 20th century rise was extraordinary in the context of the last three millennia — and the rise over the last two decades has been even faster," explains Rutgers associate professor Robert Kopp, the study’s lead author. Ocean levels, while slowly increasing since the close of the Younger Dryas era, have otherwise stayed relatively steady for the past three millennia, but have risen 5.5 inches between 1900 and 2000 — a period coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, .