Amongst the myriad secrets lost to the ancient world was the formula for Roman concrete: uncannily more robust than today’s mixtures, there are ancient Roman seawalls and harbor piers, built two millennia ago, that are still standing today, whereas modern concrete would require maintenance every few decades under the same aquatic conditions. But now, a new study may have uncovered how the ancients made their long-lasting concrete, suggesting that the secret of this forgotten formula may not truly be set in stone.
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A new study has been published that has found that the rate of sea level rise is much worse than previously thought, having tripled in pace since 1990. Before 1990, the oceans were rising at an average rate of 11 millimeters (0.43 inches) per decade, but between 1993 and 2012, that rate increased to 31 millimeters (1.22 inches) per decade.

"We have a much stronger acceleration in sea level rise than formerly thought," explains study lead Sönke Dangendorf, with Germany’s University of Siegen. "The sea level rise is now three times as fast as before 1990."
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A new study has found that five previously-charted small islands in the Solomon Island chain have slipped beneath the ocean, due to the effects of climate change-related sea level rise, and from the erosion caused by the encroaching ocean. These small islands were thankfully uninhabited, but the study also shows that another six islands in the chain are experiencing severe shoreline recession, with two villages having been lost as a result, forcing the residents to relocate.
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A study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that waters off of the U.S. East Coast may be particularly susceptible to dramatic level increases, due to the effects of global warming. This study used computer models that tracked sea level increases under a variety of carbon emission scenarios, with the goal of discovering the potential differences in the rise in sea level in the Atlantic, versus the Pacific. The outcome was dramatic, showing levels rising “~ 3–4 times higher than the global average” along a large stretch of the U.S. East Coast.
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