Researchers propose a new more accurate method instead.
The sea floor is sinking.
The ocean floor is sinking under the weight of climate change and calculations to determine sea level rise don t take that fact into equation.
Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.
The enormous mass that gets added to the ocean is causing the sea floor to warp sink and deform.
Satellite data enables scientists to map the seafloor which is sinking under the weight of rising seas.
As a result scientists have underestimated how much sea levels are rising by.
Such zones would include the.
The first study to calculate how much the ocean floor is sinking due to the extra weight of meltwater going into the sea has been.
The results show that the ocean is changing in ways we didn t realize and is sinking further into the earth s crust.
This idea played a pivotal role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics which revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century.
This theory proposes that the plates are dragged apart by the sinking of cold dense slabs of sea floor along zones of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
A sinking floor is usually a sign that the floor has begun to rot out from the underside meaning the joists or other elements of the subfloor have failed.