Earth’s surface gained 115,000 km2 of water and 173,000 km2 of land over the past 30 years, including 20,135 km2 of water and 33,700 km2 of land in coastal areas.
If sea level is rising, how did Earth gain 58,000 km2 of net land surface area, including 13,565 km2 of net coastal land surface area? I’m sure that there is an obvious logical answer. The Cretaceous sea level was about 50 m higher than today and land comprised only 23-26% of Earth’s surface area (vs 29% today).
This BBC article goes into a bit more detail and sort of answers my question…
Science & Environment
Surface water shifting around the Earth
By Rebecca Morelle
Science Correspondent, BBC News
25 August 2016
Areas in green show where water has turned into land and those in blue show where land has become water.
Scientists have used satellite images to study how the water on the Earth’s surface has changed over 30 years.
They found that 115,000 sq km (44,000 sq miles) of land is now covered in water and 173,000 sq km (67,000 sq miles) of water has now become land.
The largest increase in water has been on the Tibetan Plateau, while the Aral Sea has been the biggest conversion of water to land.
The team said many coastal areas have also changed significantly.
The research, carried out by the Deltares Research Institute in the Netherlands, is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
[…]
The team found that vast areas that were once land are now submerged beneath water, with the largest change occurring in the Tibetan Plateau, where melting glaciers are creating huge new lakes.
[…]
The biggest transformation was seen in the Aral Sea in Central Asia. What was once one of the largest lakes in the world has now almost completely dried up after engineers diverted rivers to irrigate agriculture.
[…]
Coastal areas were also analysed, and to the scientists surprise, coastlines had gained more land – 33,700 sq km (13,000 sq miles) – than they had been lost to water (20,100 sq km or 7,800 sq miles).
“We expected that the coast would start to retreat due to sea level rise, but the most surprising thing is that the coasts are growing all over the world,” said Dr Baart.
“We were able to create more land than sea level rise was taking.”
“We expected that the coast would start to retreat due to sea level rise, but the most surprising thing is that the coasts are growing all over the world…”
Of course you expected to see coastal retreat due to sea level rise. You always expect the observations to fit the failed AGW hypothesis. The surprising thing is that you keep getting surprised by observations which run counter to your failed hypothesis.
“We were able to create more land than sea level rise was taking.”
No schist Sherlock! Humans have been adapting to sea level changes since we climbed down out of trees. If mankind and our infrastructure adapted to this…
We can adapt to 7 to 11 inches of additional sea level rise without breaking a sweat…
And I call foul!! Zoom in on Tibet ( to 100m scale). Much of the green areas are in river valleys well below the glaciers and I suspect show where vegetation/ trees? have been cleared for pasture/ crops. Very little green on the edge of glaciers or snow fields. Can anyone else confirm this?
The map tool is useless for identifying land build up or sea level rise. It clearly identifies patterns of land use e.g. irrigation of paddy fields and drying up of same at harvest. It also shows floods and droughts. If this is what was used to make the claims about land or sea increase then this paper and their claims are a gigantic FAIL.
David writes: “I’m sure that there is an obvious logical answer.”
Well, maybe not obvious, but perhaps logical? In 1989 my house and the ten acres it sits on went three feet straight up. Yep. My house used to be at 1893 feet above MSL, now it’s at 1896 feet. Permanently (at least in geologic time).
Thanks to the San Andreas Fault and my good luck, the entire Butano Sandstone Formation went up 3′. Who would have guessed? Yep. Stuff like that really happens. So now, there’s just more land above sea level than there used to be. Go figure?
If it’s any consolation, the whole thing almost killed me and my daughter in about 15 seconds. But it didn’t, we’re both still breathing and happy to be here. Life is, as they say, good!
Growing cotton for foreign currency. Children doing slavery on cotton plantations instead of going to school.
A bad world then, divided by a wall of iron.
Johann Wundersamer
August 31, 2016 1:32 pm
[snip -off color comment – you need to tone it down -mod]
And I call foul!! Zoom in on Tibet ( to 100m scale). Much of the green areas are in river valleys well below the glaciers and I suspect show where vegetation/ trees? have been cleared for pasture/ crops. Very little green on the edge of glaciers or snow fields. Can anyone else confirm this?
The map tool is useless for identifying land build up or sea level rise. It clearly identifies patterns of land use e.g. irrigation of paddy fields and drying up of same at harvest. It also shows floods and droughts. If this is what was used to make the claims about land or sea increase then this paper and their claims are a gigantic FAIL.
David writes: “I’m sure that there is an obvious logical answer.”
Well, maybe not obvious, but perhaps logical? In 1989 my house and the ten acres it sits on went three feet straight up. Yep. My house used to be at 1893 feet above MSL, now it’s at 1896 feet. Permanently (at least in geologic time).
Thanks to the San Andreas Fault and my good luck, the entire Butano Sandstone Formation went up 3′. Who would have guessed? Yep. Stuff like that really happens. So now, there’s just more land above sea level than there used to be. Go figure?
If it’s any consolation, the whole thing almost killed me and my daughter in about 15 seconds. But it didn’t, we’re both still breathing and happy to be here. Life is, as they say, good!
Aral sea’s Transformation is the sadest man did to earth –
https://www.google.at/search?q=aral+sea+2016&oq=aral+sea+2016&aqs=chrome..69i57.23554j0j4&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Growing cotton for foreign currency. Children doing slavery on cotton plantations instead of going to school.
A bad world then, divided by a wall of iron.
[snip -off color comment – you need to tone it down -mod]
v’
The kings of land reclamation doing a study about naturally increased land.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/08/27/historical_map_shows_land_reclamation_in_the_nertherlands.html
Increased volume in oceans depresses sea floor, squeezing mantle under continents lightened by melting ice and raising them.