Solid Earth and sea level change: a forgotten contribution (Speaker: Riccardo Riva, TU Delft)

Speaker: Riccardo Riva (TU Delft)

The debate about ongoing and future sea level change usually focuses on variations in the mass and density of ocean waters. Mass variations are driven by water exchange with the continents, especially caused by melting ice, while density variations are mostly the result on increased temperature at the Earth’s surface. Both are a direct result of climate change.

Somehow subtler is the impact of changes in the shape and gravity field of the Earth, since ongoing variations are not affecting global mean sea level and often hard to observe. Nonetheless, the solid earth contribution has a large effect on sea level change at regional to local scales and can bias most of the available observations of recent changes.

I will present results from a few recent studies from my group that will show how solid earth signals can influence both observations of recent sea level change and their interpretation. In addition, I will discuss some of the physics and limitations of current models of earth deformation, and their importance for sea level studies in a more general sense.