A photo from open sources
Among scientists, there is an opinion that one of the serious consequences global warming will be flooding part of the land in view of increasing sea level. And among the first, they say, this will suffer Pacific islands.
For example, the government of Tuvalu, located on the Polynesian islands of the same name, a few years ago, the beginning prepare to relocate to Australia and New Zealand (watch video), because it is in this region of the Pacific Ocean the water level rises most intensely – at a speed of almost 4 millimeter per year.
A photo from open sources
However, New Zealand scientists at Auckland University are not so have long conducted a large-scale study using analysis changes in sea level and the reef islands of Tuvalu (based on satellite maps) and came to an amazing conclusion: as ocean level rise the polynesian islands not only not decrease, but mainly increase in size. That is, they grow, as if trying to break out from the influence of increasing water level.
According to scientists published in a scientific journal Nature Communications, for almost 45 years that researchers managed to cover, in their analysis, the area of the hundred reef islands Tuvalu for the most part increased by 74 hectares in total, and only 26 percent of the islands are slightly smaller.
A photo from open sources
Scientists have put forward several theories of growth of the Polynesian islands, among which the most likely seems to be such a biophysical factor like reef shoreline rise due to surf and storms.
And although this assumption is not scientifically confirmed (he many opponents who believe that in this case the process island growth would be observed everywhere, where there are surfs and storms, and this is not in nature), other theories are completely speculative, and some are just fantastic. In any case, the danger to there is no Tuvalu population yet, moreover, scientists models and forecasts of population migration due to land flooding the reason for the increase in sea level should now be considered similar “mistakes” or “jokes” of nature …
Island Water
