Sea waves will become monumental due to global warming

Investigation led Richard Astaire professor of geophysics at Colorado State University and chair of the institution’s geosciences department, points out that global warming and seismic activity registered, they will cause huge waves.

“My colleagues and I have tracked this growth around the world over the past four decades. “This global data, along with other ocean, satellite and regional seismic studies, shows a decadal increase in wave energy that coincides with an increase in the number of storms associated with rising global temperatures,” Aster said.

Waves generate seismic signals in two ways:

• Sets of waves move across the oceans in different directions, interfering with each other, creating pressure fluctuations on the seafloor. However, disturbing waves are not always present, so in this sense it is an imperfect indicator of overall ocean wave activity.
• The second way that ocean waves generate global seismic signals is called the primary microseismic process. These signals are caused by ocean waves that move straight and push and pull on the seabed. Because the movement of water within waves decreases rapidly with depth, this occurs in regions where the water depth is less than 1,000 feet (about 300 meters). The primary microseismic signal is visible in seismic data as a constant hum with a period of 14 to 20 seconds.

Since 1980, researchers have set up 52 monitoring sites around the planet to measure these seismic waves.

“We found the highest total microseismic energy in very stormy regions of the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic Peninsula. But these results show that waves in the North Atlantic have been increasing faster in recent decades compared to historical levels. “This is consistent with recent research suggesting that North Atlantic storm intensity and coastal hazards are increasing,” Aster added.

The oceans have absorbed about 90% of the excess heat associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in recent decades. This excess energy can lead to more destructive waves and more powerful storms.