Pacific islands record sea level rise

Latest figures show that the sea level around the Pacific island of Tonga appears to have risen by about 10 centimetres in the past 13 years.

The South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project publishes monthly figures from 12 monitoring stations.

The latest monthly data report shows that for the stations that have been monitored for more than 10 years, the sea level rise trend is highest in Tonga, with a rise of 8.4 millimetres a year.

The sea level is rising at every station but there are wide variations.

The Cook Islands station is showing a rising trend less than one-eighth that in Tonga.

At Tuvalu, which will be experiencing its highest tides in fifteen years next week, the trend in sea level rise over the past 13 years has been 5.7 millimetres a year, a cumulative rise of about seven centimetres.

Project coordinators urge that caution be exercised in interpreting any of the trend data because they say longer term recordings are needed.

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