Rapidly Fluctuating India Sea Levels Were 4 m Higher Than Today 6000 Years Ago, 1.5 m Higher 500 Years Ago

Scientists have found sea levels on India’s eastern coast were still 1-1.5 m higher than today as recently as 500 to 300 years ago and 3-4 m higher than today between 6000 to 4000 years ago. Seas rose and fell by multiple meters (-5 m to +3 m) within 1250 years until as recently as 4000 to 2000 years ago.

A new paper (Loveson and Nigam, 2019) reveals sea levels were still rising at a rate of 2.2 meters per century between 8100 and 7200 years ago, reaching a highstand of 4 meters above today’s sea level 6050 years ago.

For the next several millennia sea levels rapidly rose and fell within a range 6 meters – between 4 meters above to -2 meters below present levels.

A drop in sea level at one point reached an amplitude of -5 meters in just 1250 years (4350 to 3100 years ago) followed by 3 meters of sea level rise within 1200 years (3100 to 1900 years ago).

As recently as about 300 years ago mean sea level on India’s eastern shore was still about 1 meter higher than today.

Image Source: Loveson and Nigam, 2019

Evidence there were sea port towns along India’s west coast that are presently located much further inland suggest sea levels were 2-3 m higher prior to 2500 years ago.

At the time of the 43 AD Roman invasion of Britain, the ocean shoreline, or beach, was located 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) from today’s shore.

Image Source: BBC

A new paper (Makwana et al., 2019) indicates there were sea port settlements that are today located “far inland” compared to where they were about 2500 years ago.

The scientists suggest sea levels may have been at least 2 meters higher than today at that time.

A visual example of how 2-meters-higher sea levels could have “submerged” the coast of western India is provided.

Image Source: Makwana et al., 2019

6 responses to “Rapidly Fluctuating India Sea Levels Were 4 m Higher Than Today 6000 Years Ago, 1.5 m Higher 500 Years Ago”

  1. TomRude

    6 months ago some Hawaii based academic Chip Fletcher was lamenting the disappearance of East Island on the La Perouse shoal following a hurricane… The story had received a royal global alarmist media treatment… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0tHcTuIIU
    I had a holy shit moment, thinking ‘Oh my God, it’s gone,’ It’s one more chink in the wall of the network of ecosystem diversity on this planet that is being dismantled.”
    It’s unclear if East Island — an 11-acre spit of sand and gravel that hosted a U.S. Coast Guard radar station until 1952 — will ever return or how resilient the displaced animals will be.
    Except that as shown on the May 3, 2019 aerial shot, the sand island has been reconstituted at 50% less than one year after hurricane Walaka had reworked it.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/three-islands-disappeared-past-year-climate-change-blame-ncna1015316
    Scroll and see for yourself!
    Fletcher should be ashamed.
    Let’s wait to see how long it will take the global press to make as much noise on the island re-appearance as they made on its vanishing…
    H/T to Murray Ford https://twitter.com/mfordNZ/status/1138181359162314757

    It is even worse: in a tweet dated June 15, 2019 Prof. Chip Fletcher continues his agitprop on East Island…

    https://twitter.com/fletcher_chip/status/1139975235178905600
    It will take courage to rally around our disappearing ecosystems, courage to protect species threatened with extinction, courage to save ourselves. Chip Fletcher: Memorial For A 2,171-Year-Old Island

    The tweet links to a November 2018 article in which Fletcher’s video laments the loss of the sand island…
    https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/chip-fletcher-memorial-for-a-2171-year-old-island/

    Yet on his twitter feed, nowhere is the May 3, 2019 aerial image showing East island’s sand bank being reconstituted at 50% shown or discussed and seals have also returned to the island. Is Chip Fletcher not interested anymore now that his bull has been debunked by mother nature?

    Dr. Charles “Chip” Fletcher is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission.

    So much for dedication to truth in science…

  2. John Andrews

    It sounds to me like the land is rising rather than the sea level falling. And if you look up the hill you kan see the Hymilayas as proof that the land is rising.

  3. Rapidly Fluctuating India Sea Levels Were 4 Meters Higher Than Today – Truth is difficult but essential…
  4. Steve

    I am 30 metres above sea level in Bondi.
    Should I move to higher ground now or just wait and see?

    1. jollygreenman

      Steve.

      Go and check the sea level at least once a week and send us the pictures, preferably with some bikini clad models to illustrate the movement. All in the interest of science of course!

  5. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #368 | Watts Up With That?

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