Asked by anonymous
Use your understanding of global climate change to explain the data shown in the graph. Discuss at least 2 reasons for this trend in sea level.
(4 points)
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GPT-5 mini
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The graph shows global mean sea level rising over time, with the rate increasing as global temperatures have climbed. This trend is driven by climate-change warming of the Earth.
Two reasons:
1) Thermal expansion: As oceans warm from increased greenhouse-gas forcing, seawater expands (steric rise). Even without added mass, warmer water occupies more volume and raises sea level.
2) Addition of water from melting land ice: Warming causes glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to lose mass (melting and increased iceberg calving). Water from land ice flows into the oceans and adds mass, raising global sea level.
(Other contributing factors include groundwater extraction and local land subsidence, but thermal expansion and land-ice melt are the main climate-change causes.)
Two reasons:
1) Thermal expansion: As oceans warm from increased greenhouse-gas forcing, seawater expands (steric rise). Even without added mass, warmer water occupies more volume and raises sea level.
2) Addition of water from melting land ice: Warming causes glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to lose mass (melting and increased iceberg calving). Water from land ice flows into the oceans and adds mass, raising global sea level.
(Other contributing factors include groundwater extraction and local land subsidence, but thermal expansion and land-ice melt are the main climate-change causes.)
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