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Global change

Sea level and volcanoes

Nature volume 438, pages 35–36 (2005)Cite this article

Large volcanic eruptions cool the world ocean. In doing so, they temporarily reduce the increase in ocean heat content and the rise in sea level attributed to warming caused by greenhouse-gas emissions.

Global warming is producing a rise in sea level. Observations from tide gauges and satellite altimetry indicate that sea level has been rising by 1.8 millimetres per year since 1950 (ref. 1) and about 3 millimetres per year during the 1990s (ref. 2). The two causes are a thermal expansion of sea water in response to ocean warming, and the input of extra water from the melting of glaciers and ice sheets on land3. But against the background of this overall increase, global mean sea level displays interannual to decadal oscillations of the order of several millimetres. These oscillations have received scant attention to date. Some of them result from changes in ocean heat content associated with internal perturbations of the ocean–atmosphere system, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation4. But other processes, probably related to the ‘forcing’ effects of natural climate variation, also play a role.

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Figure 1: Mount Pinatubo erupts.

SIPA PRESS/REX FEATURES

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  1. the Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales, LEGOS-CNES, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, Toulouse, 31401 Cedex 9, France

    Anny Cazenave

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  1. Anny Cazenave
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Cazenave, A. Sea level and volcanoes. Nature 438, 35–36 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/438035a

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