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John Bratton (WHFC) is in the News
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November 1999 |
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(Modified from OCEANSP@CE Issue 177, Monday, October 11, 1999.)
Global Warming Can Make Sea Level Plunge!
On October 7, 1999, BBC
Online carried news of research by John Bratton of the USGS (published
in the journal Geology) on the possibility that global warming can lead
to a dramatic fall in sea level. John says the process behind it could
slightly offset the sea-level rise that is predicted to flood low-lying
areas of the world. The BBC report is quick to point out that a fall in
sea level is unlikely to happen in the near future, but points out that
global warming could also explain mysterious plunges in sea level
during warmer periods in the Earth's geological past. Melting of
clathrates, the sea-floor crystals of ice that enclose gases such
as methane, could cause the sea-level falls. When the crystals melt,
the gases bubble away and other gases trapped in the ocean sediments
below could also be released. More information can be found on
BBC News Online.
John has also been contacted by BBC-TV, the White House Office of
Science and Technology, and Discover magazine. The Geology article
citation is Bratton, John F., 1999, Clathrate eustasy: Methane hydrate
melting as a mechanism for geologically rapid sea-level fall: Geology,
vol. 27, no. 10, p. 915-918.
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November 1999
in this issue:
Lake Tanganyika
Honduras
Grand Canyon Sediments
Grand Canyon GPR
Medicine Lake, CA
SWASH Project
Cruise News
cover story:
Earth Science Week in St. Pete
Earth Science Week in Woods Hole
R/V Gilbert
Nat'l Mapping Leadership
MARGINS
Great Lakes Mapping
Delmarva Bays Delta
Grand Canyon Research
Bratton in the News
Woods Hole Arrivals
Woods Hole Visitors
Marshall Islands Map
November Publications List
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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