Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Human caused global warming coastal flooding is definitely 'on'


Imagine the 'position' of the mouth a river - it's position is determined by the level of the body of water that it flows into - the higher the level of that body of water, the further inland - and upland - will be the mouth of that river.

Now consider a torrential rain in the catchment of that river. As the river floods it reaches it's historical high level much quicker because the river is actually higher at it's 'base' than it was before the level of the body of water that it flows into, rose.

Now consider the August 2016 1,000 year #laflood - and the topography of southern Louisiana - much of which is the delta of the ancient Mississippi River. The cities of New Orleans & Baton Rouge, are, for lack or a better word, 'over'.

An element missing in the linked article - a tour of recent American Atlantic Coast flooding - notes that sea level rise related flooding is less apparent in northern States - but the article does not comment further on this anomaly.

Missing is this likely cause:

Consider that the spinning of the planet creates a bubble in the ocean that rises in slope the closer you get to the equator - and that when one increases the amount of water in the ocean, the increase in the bubble's slope is not simply a lineal one - the increase in the rise of that slope will have an exponential character due to the functioning of the increase not only in the level of that water but also the weight of that water which is massing at the equator due to the spin of the planet.

Thus this 'canary in the coal mine' flooding in the southern states will slowly work it's way north, but long after it has 'disappeared' the coast line of the southern States that we know today.

That said --- ALL rivers find their level as a function of the bodies of water which they flow into - and increases in extreme weather events will create 1,000 year floods in all river basins that flow into the globe's oceans - including the St. Lawrence River - which will in turn, raise the level of Lake Ontario and the Niagara River all the way to the Niagara escarpment at Niagara Falls.

Take note Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton ... .

NYT - Sept 3, 2016
Flooding of Coast, Caused by Global Warming, Has Already Begun
By JUSTIN GILLIS

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/science/flooding-of-coast-caused-by-global-warming-has-already-begun.html


Originally written and posted in Facebook - which doesn't allow you to share: https://www.facebook.com/michael.holloway.90281/posts/10155072182821002



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