Climate Change: The Continental Shelf is Warming at a Rate That's 15 Times Faster Than Previously

First Posted: Jun 16, 2015 09:01 AM EDT

The northeast United States may be getting a bit warmer. Scientists have taken a closer look at why there's an accelerated rate of sea level rise in the northeast and have found that water temperatures in the continental shelf region have undergone unprecedented warming over the last 13 years.

"The warming rate since 2002 is 15 times faster than from the previous 100 years," said Glen Gawarkiewicz, senior scientist of the study, in a news release. "There's just been this incredible acceleration to the warming, and we don't know if it's decadal variability, or if this trend will continue."

The researchers used temperature data from the waters off of the northeast coast of the United States that were collected by the container ship Oleander. The scientists launched bathythermographs along the ship's track in order to collect the temperature data about 14 times each year.

"The Oleander data is special because it goes through the whole water column on the shelf. And if you're a fish living on the bottom, you care more about that," said Magdalena Andres, one of the researchers. "It was this trove of shelf temperature data that we could use to help us address these questions."

The researchers found that over time, temperatures have been steadily increasingly. Most recently, temperatures have been getting warmer, faster. In addition, the warming seen most recently seems to be at the edge of the continental shelf. This indicates that the Gulf Stream may be playing a role, or perhaps it's slope water that's playing a role.

The findings reveal a bit more about why sea levels may be rising faster. It turns out that temperatures are simply warmer along the northeast coast.

The findings are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.

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Tagsunited states, Climate Change, Climate, global warming, Ocean, Gulf Stream, Northeast