Abstract

Is the sea level accelerating in the Marshall Islands? Pacific atolls are subject to subsidy

Author(s): Albert Parker

It is shown that the sea level rate of rise is different in the two islands of Kwajalein and Majuro, located in the two atolls of Kwajalein and Majuro, in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Kwajalein has a rate of rise of about 2 mm/year, up from a prior 1.4 mm/year, while Majuro has a rate of rise exceeding 3.6 mm/year about constant. The difference in the rates of rises and their recent changes are more likely explained by differential subsidy in space time at a higher rate especially in Kwajalein from the 2000s than by global warming thermal expansion of the oceans.