Relative sea-level rise and the influence of vertical land motion at Tropical Pacific Islands

Adrian Martínez-Asensio 1 Guy Woppelmann 1 Valérie Ballu 1 Melanie Becker 1 Laurent Testut 1 Alexandre K. Magnan 2, 1 Virginie Duvat 1
1 LIENSs - LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés - UMR 7266
2 IDDRI - Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations
Abstract : This study investigates the relative sea–level changes and the influence of vertical land movements at South Western Tropical Pacific Islands. The dataset consists of tide gauge records, remote satellite altimetry observations and GPS records. After evaluating the uncertainties and the nature of vertical land movements, we focus on the present and future relative sea–level changes. The main source of uncertainty comes from the types of vertical land motion estimates. Results revealed that the relative sea level has increased more than the global mean sea level (from 0.8 to 4.2mm yr–1 higher) overall in the region during the last 4–6 decades, especially at the islands located over the most tectonically active areas where future changes cannot be reliably projected. For most of the islands located outside tectonically active areas, relative sea–level projected changes by the end of the 21st century are of similar magnitude to the projected global mean sea–level (0.6 ± 0.2m in the RCP 8.5 scenario), with the exception of Tahiti where major changes are projected (0.8 ± 0.2 m).
Document type :
Journal articles
Complete list of metadatas
https://hal-univ-rochelle.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02142065
Contributor : Virginie Duvat <>
Submitted on : Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - 1:33:55 PM
Last modification on : Friday, September 20, 2019 - 4:30:16 PM

Identifiers

Collections

UNIV-ROCHELLE | CNRS

Citation

Adrian Martínez-Asensio, Guy Woppelmann, Valérie Ballu, Melanie Becker, Laurent Testut, et al.. Relative sea-level rise and the influence of vertical land motion at Tropical Pacific Islands. Global and Planetary Change, Elsevier, 2019, 176, pp.132-143. ⟨10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.03.008⟩. ⟨hal-02142065⟩

Export

BibTeX TEI DC DCterms EndNote

Share

Metrics

Record views

49