Reconstructing the glacier contribution to sea-level rise back to 1850

J. Oerlemans (1) , M. Dyurgerov (2) , R. S. W. van de Wal (1)

1 IMAU - Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research [Utrecht]
2 Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology

We present a method to estimate the glacier contribution to sea-level rise from glacier length records. These records form the only direct evidence of glacier changes prior to 1946, when the first continuous mass-balance observations began. A globally representative length signal is calculated from 197 length records from all continents by normalisation and averaging of 14 different regions. Next, the resulting signal is calibrated with mass-balance observations for the period 1961?2000. We find that the glacier contribution to sea level rise was 5.5±1.0 cm during the period 1850?2000 and 4.5±0.7 cm during the period 1900?2000.

Domaines: Interfaces continentales, environnement; Océan, Atmosphère; Sciences de la Terre

J. Oerlemans, M. Dyurgerov, R. S. W. van de Wal. Reconstructing the glacier contribution to sea-level rise back to 1850. The Cryosphere, 2007, 1 (1), pp.59-65. ⟨hal-00298508⟩