Sea Level Change and the Human Experience
E-PSCI 261
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This year's course will focus on sea level changes over time scales that have relevance to human experiences in both the ancient and modern world. The course begins with a brief overview of the processes responsible for sea level changes on time scales of hundreds of millions of years, including the concepts of eustasy and dynamic topography. The first major section of the course deals with sea level changes on the ice age (Plio-Pleistocene) Earth, including geological and geodetic observations of geographically variable ice age sea level change, ice sheet histories, and Earth structure. We will consider recent reconstructions of ice volumes and the lessons these reconstructions - and the associated sea level changes - have for both the stability of ice sheets in our progressively warming world, and archaeological studies of human migration and seafaring. The second major section of the course will deal with sea level changes in the modern world, including land-based tide gauge records and satellite altimetric observations, and the sea-level "fingerprints" of rapid ice mass changes. In this section, we explore the budgets of global, regional and local sea level changes, including the relative contributions of rapid ice mass changes, thermosteric effects and ocean dynamics, as well as topics related to storm surges, coastal impacts, and adaptation measures, and consider several case studies (e.g., Hurricane Katrina, Tuvalu, Bangladesh, Nile Delta). The course ends with a review of sea level projections for the next few decades and century.
Course Notes
Given in alternate years.
Recommended Prep
College-level physics and math courses are required. Open to undergraduate students with permission of instructor.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
