A group of scientists from the University of California and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was able to establish that the rise in water levels in the world's oceans is slowing down due to an increase in water supplies on land. The results of the research of scientists were published by the journal Science.
According to team leader John Rieger, he and his colleagues analyzed data obtained from satellites of the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) mission from 2002 to 2014. The information obtained was compared with the change in glacier mass.
According to scientists, the water that enters the world's oceans during the melting of glaciers is "absorbed by the land." Over the past decade, researchers say, continents have absorbed over $ 3 trillion. water, thereby slowing down by 20% rise in sea level.
As Rieger noted, the continents in this case act like a sponge. Water is absorbed into the soil and accumulates in voids. If all the accumulated water were to be collected in a single reservoir, then its size would be comparable to Lake Huron. This is one of the North American Great Lakes. Its depth reaches 229 meters, and its area is 59.6 thousand square kilometers.