Posted by Target on 4/16/2009, 2:22 am

10 feet in 50 years is a very rapid sea level rise indicated by 121,000 year old coral. Time to add height to levees.... "By measuring the decay of thorium in the reefs, the researchers estimated their age at roughly 121,000 years old—from a period in the Pleistocene epoch known as the Eemian interglacial, which saw average temperatures that were roughly 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) warmer, higher sea levels, and less ice than today." "The buried reefs revealed that sea level rises of as much as two inches (five centimeters) per year resulted in at least a 6.6 foot (two meter) jump in as little as 50 years, based on a series of reefs retreating closer to a receding shore over time. An older reef's tip crested at roughly 10 feet (three meters) above present sea level but a second reef crest farther inland grew 10 feet higher than that, indicating that sea level had risen by as much as 10 feet by the time the latter formed because corals grow nearly to sea level, according to the findings published today in Nature." http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=ancient-corals-provide-record-of-rapid-sea-level-rise