Sea level rise in the Mediterranean Sea and Mallorca Island - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The answers to these questions can be given in a twofold criteria and include the change in the estuarine geodatum caused as a result of the flow of melt water from the glaciated lands across the globe into the sea. Consequently, thermal expansion of the upper layers of the sea water caused by the decrease in water density due to its warming leading to the rise in the sea levels (Szabados, 2002). The occurrences of these situations within the earth’s geographical landscape usually lead to varied rise in the sea levels in some areas and a fall in certain areas. Another cause for the changes in the level of the seawater is the rising or uplifting of the lands close to the sea. This often causes the decline in sea levels in some regions though to a limited extent. Sea level rise is of recent times has resulted in very great concern to the global community as environmental conservation issues is a global phenomenon and is of global concern. According to the statistics taken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) using the satellite images, the global sea levels have been rising tenderly at an average rate of about 3mm per year from 1993 to 2007 (IPCC, 2007). This report highlights the various effects of the continued rise in sea level within the global context. This report will also look at the changes in the sea level in the Mallorca and the Mediterranean regions of the world, their causes and consequences on the adjacent lands as well as the extent of the influences on the coastal communities around the mentioned areas. Mallorca is a small island in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain that has been characterized by a number of notable cases of sea level change. Studies by Jeffrey Dorale shows that the sea level was about one meter above the levels that reached 81000 years ago indicating a positive deviation in the in the level of the sea waters. The rise in the levels as he argues is brought about by the rapid melting of ice around the globe. The ice water consequently finds its way into the sea thereby raising the water levels by about one meter for every fifty years (Jieffrey, 2010). The observable results of this rise in the levels of the Mediterranean Sea are seen as a spillover effect in the communities surrounding the sea. Most of the communities that were once living closer to the sea have retreated by about sixty miles away from the coastline as much of the land has been submerged under the seawaters. Moreover, Barnetti (2005) argues that the formally dry lands adjacent to the Mediterranean regions have now been covered under water thereby continuously diminishing the amount of cultivatable lands in these regions and the consequent migration of people out of these areas (Barnetti, 2005). Geography has evolved as a more organized subject of study that uses different methodological approaches in understanding various observed geographical phenomena. On one hand, physical geography adopts a scientific and rational approach while on the other hand human geography relies heavily on descriptive techniques in examining the relationship between complex human factors and their influence on geographical environment. The scientific approach has been adopted widely in the study of physical geography based on observation, precise scientific experience and sound precision and measurements of the geographical phenomena. As such, the Mediterranean region has been experiencing constant shifts in its climatic characteristics contributed mostly by the wide variation in the ...Download file to see next pages Read More