"An analysis of peat layers at the bottom of the North Sea shows how fast sea level rose during the end of the last ice age, when Earth was warming at a similar rate as today."
"A new analysis of ancient layers of peat at the bottom of the North Sea will help scientists more accurately project how much sea level will rise in the coming decades and centuries. The research shows how fast sea level rose about 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, the last time Earth warmed as fast as it is warming now.
Current estimates for sea level rise in the next 75 years range between 1 and 4 feet. The new study, published today in Nature, affirms that projections for 3 feet of sea level rise by 2100 are not unrealistic, and “help[s] unravel the complex interaction between ice sheets, climate, and sea level,” said co-author Marc Hijma, a geologist with Deltares, a nonprofit research institute in The Netherlands.
The findings suggest sea level jumped by as much 3.3 feet per century during at least two separate periods between about 8,300 and 10,300 years ago, as the North American and Eurasian ice sheets melted away early in the Holocene geologic era.
Previous estimates for the total amount of sea level rise in the early Holocene varied by as much as 50 feet."
Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News March 19, 2025.
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