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Above: Beit Yanai beach. The rise of the sea level accelerates the destruction of the cliff
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Something unusual has been happening at the level of the Mediterranean Sea in recent years, and scientists have yet to find an explanation for it. In a recent study conducted at the University of Haifa, data from Israel and other countries were analyzed, and it was found that the sea level rose in the last decade at a rate of ten millimeters per year - a much greater rate than the rate of increase in the past. One of the side effects of sea level rise is the shift of the coastline to the east and the loss of coastal areas.
Dr. Micha Klein, Michal Leichter and Dov Tsaviali from the Department of Geography at the University of Haifa, examined the sea level data from the years 2000-1990 in Israel and at 23 measuring stations in other countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. They presented the research findings last week, at a conference held at the University of Haifa on "The Mediterranean Sea - Problems and Challenges at the Beginning of the 21st Century".
The study was based on data collected using a meriograph - a room meter that measures changes in sea level. Changes in the average are calculated from these data
annual sea level rise. The analyzed data also included two studies done on the coasts of Israel - by Dov Rosen from the Sea and Lakes Research Institute, who examined the changes in sea level in the Hadera region in the years 2001-1992; and of Boris Shirman from the Israel Mapping Center, who examined the changes in sea level in the years 2001-1958 in Ashdod, Tel Aviv and Ashkelon.
Rosen found a rising trend in sea level at a rate of ten millimeters per year, while in the past the rate of increase was 1.8-1 millimeters per year. According to Shirman's findings, the sea level rose in Ashdod and Tel Aviv by more than 100 millimeters in the years 2001-1990. This increase follows an increase of 50 millimeters in the years 1991-1977.
When Haifa University researchers examined data from meriographers in other countries, it became clear to them that in the western Mediterranean Sea, within a decade, there was an increase of 9-6 millimeters per year - which is ten times higher than the average sea level rise in other places around the world. In the Adriatic Sea, the rising trend was even stronger and reached 14 millimeters per year.
To compare the findings to what happened in the Mediterranean Sea in the previous decades, the researchers examined four stations where data was recorded for a hundred years. In Genoa, in northwestern Italy, the trend of change over the period was only 1.22 millimeters per year, and in Venice, in northeastern Italy: only 2.39 millimeters per year.
The conclusion of the study: in the Mediterranean, the rate of sea level rise has increased in the last 15 years. When the effect of this change on Israel's coasts was examined, it was found that an increase of one hundred millimeters per decade moves the coastline by about 2 to 10 meters to the east, and every decade a coastal area of 2-0.4 square kilometers is lost. The rise in sea level accelerates processes such as the destruction of the coastal cliff that occurred in Beit Yanai, north of Netanya.
Three years ago, a team of researchers on behalf of the United Nations published its conclusions regarding the effects of the phenomenon of global warming, and estimated that the phenomenon will cause a rise in the level of sea water. The increase is the result of the melting of glaciers and the expansion of water due to the increase in temperature. However, Klein claims that it is not clear whether the rise in the level of the Mediterranean Sea is related to the melting of glaciers or the expansion of water. According to him, researchers currently do not have any established explanation for the reasons for the accelerated rate at which the sea level is rising and they do not know if this is a trend that will continue at the current rate for a long time.
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