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The shape of water

Head Rambles Posted on by

I saw a weird news article the other day.

They are claiming that the sea level in Dublin Bay is rising twice as fast as anywhere else.

This presents me with a little puzzle.

I have a rudimentary knowledge of physics. I grant I’m not quite at Nobel status, but nevertheless….

The last time I looked, water is a liquid normally. I know that it can be a gas or a solid under the right conditions but for the purposes of this conundrum we’ll assume it’s a liquid. And liquid flows. And because it can flow it tends to find it’s own level due to gravity. With me so far?

Now on a cosmic scale, I can understand that the water level at the Equator will be higher than anywhere else because of centrifugal force. People tend to forget that our globe is spinning at an alarming rate? I am assuming that we are talking averages and ignoring tidal fluctuations. I can also understand that levels will temporarily be raised or lowered by atmospheric pressure and we will ignore them. What we are pondering here is average levels measured over the course of a year or more.

So all else being equal, why should the water in Dublin Bay be higher than anywhere else?

Is there some weird gravitational pull buried deep underground? Is it down to the quantities of raw sewage being pumped in every day? Is it the world renowned Dublin hospitality that’s attracting it into the bay? Is it all down to the ferries and the odd cruise ship displacing vast volumes of sea?

Weird.

As a ship enters Dublin Bay, the captain cries over the Tannoy – “All hands on deck! The ship’s going up a hill.”

 

Comments

The shape of water — 21 Comments

  1. Ahem – there’s no such thing as centrifugal force. I’ll get me coat.

    • Don’t tell the Moon, or it will smash into us.

      Don’t forget your hat and scarf.

  2. My equally rudimentary knowledge of physics leads me to conclude that there is only one feasible explanation. Ireland is sinking. That’s the only answer for the unique situation in Dublin Bay.

    Time to abandon ship and apply for asylum somewhere before you need to swim for it – I’m told Ukraine is nice at this time of year. Good luck with that.

    • Ireland can sink a further 500 feet before I’ll even start to worry. I quite fancy a proper sea view anyway.

  3. This is probably an artifact of the modelling. If you look at the article you will see that the raw data has been hugely processed. It is conceivable but unlikely that Dublin Bay was subsiding. The article refers to a “a novel Bayesian linear regression” which should be enough to make anyone suspicious of the results.

    • The modelling does seem to be somewhat complicated. A case or torturing the figures until they give the right answer?

  4. There are a lot of very, very dense people in your Doil.
    All this enormous, in a very secular manner, mass attracts the water.
    You will probably find that the stratosphere and all other “spheres” above Duhblin are lower, or depressed.
    This general depression is the the reason that most Duhbliners are miserable gits and the bubbles in Guinness appear to sink downwards.
    But this is just a theory. I need more funding (aka dosh ), lots, to thoroughly investigate this phenomenon.

    • More research is needed. Indeed, you should apply for a job in Pubic Health. You seem well qualified?

  5. Strangely enough, I was listening to the midday news on the way home from shopping,when exactly the same thing was said about parts of New Zealand.Apparently the sea is rising faster in some places than others.My immediate thought was, how the hell does that happen? I had visions of buoys dotted round the coast with “Danger, Steep hill” on them and stories of Container ships stalling on the steep gradients.
    Later it was made clear that some parts of the coast are subsiding which cleared that up,but I still can’t see how me giving up my petrol car will stop the land dropping .

      • Hey!

        Don’t you have any of those ‘be nice to everyone’ public service announcements in Ireland?
        Words can hurt too you know. (Although not as bad as a fist in the face, I’ll concede that.)

        Signed, A portly American descended of Irish, Scottish, and lord knows how many other nations as well.

  6. Apparently the sea level is rising ‘twice as fast’ all over the planet, from Australia, Canada and the USA to yes, even Russia. All at the same time.

    Methinks someone is telling porkies.

    • If everywhere is rising twice as fast as everywhere else then that must surely equate to an infinite rise in levels overall? It’s a closed infinite loop.

  7. Everywhere seems to have sea levels rising twice as fast as the rest of the world.

  8. If it looks like a scam, it probably is a scam. Computer modelling has led us astray for years (& killed thousands). Sea water levels are affected by many forces, so it’s likely the models are missing inputs, such as three-dimensional currents and flows through undersea channels.

    • The Irish Sea is well known for its peculiarities. It’s reputed to be a rougher crossing than the Bay of Biscay. It’s due to the tide entering the Irish Sea from both the north and south channels and meeting in the middle around Dublin. I know that sounds like a joke but it’s actually true.

    • Of course it is. Otherwise people in Australia [and New Zealand] would fall off.

  10. I suspect it’s all that recycled Guinness flowing down the Liffy.

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