O'ahu is Hawaii's third largest island, referred to by many as the "gathering place." The O''ahu island holds about 80% of Hawaii's population, drawing more tourists than any other island in the state of Hawaii. The mountains affected are the Ko'olau and Wai'anae volcanic mountains, with the Wai'anae Volcano in the west and the Ko'olau Volcano in the east.
"We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate," said Brigham Young University geologist Steve Nelson. "More material is dissolved from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion," according to Science Daily
Brigham Young University study
Unlike Oahu's mountains, most mountains are eroded down from soil erosion, a process that causes continuous change in the land. Currently, about 70% of the O'ahu beaches have eroded. In the study, the researchers "pitted groundwater against stream water to see which removed more mineral material, a process that took about two months by Nelson and his colleagues."
Brigham Young University
reports that the "ground and surface water estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey helped them calculate the total quantity of mass that disappeared from the island each year."
"All of the Hawaiian Islands are made of just one kind of rock," Nelson said. "The weathering rates are variable, too, because rainfall is so variable, so it's a great natural laboratory."
Undergraduate Brian Selck helped co-author the study, which appears in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Unfortunately for him, he joined the project only after the field work in Hawaii took place. But he did help perform the mineralogical analysis of soil samples in the lab back in Provo. BYU geology professor David Tingey joins Nelson and Selck as a co-author on the new study.
Parts of the world are sinking
Maps of earth changes have been around for a long time; I wrote for Mitch Battros for several years in his publication "Earth Changes
" where earth changing maps
were published by Battros out of Washington.
Yahoo states that land subsidence and such will cause regional land to fall such as in sinkholes due to underground cavern collapses. Many of the lands that some use as proof that sea levels are rising really have very little to do with rising sea levels at all but more to do with the land sinking regionally. However, sea levels are currently rising and, even if coastal and low lying areas aren't sinking, they will be affected as will the residents. The effects of rising sea levels will differ from place to place dependent on coastal populations and such.
~ Venice, Italy
In 2012, it was found that Venice was sinking five times faster than originally estimated.
"New research by U.S. scientists suggests it is sinking more than five times faster than experts in Venice believe. It’s quite obvious to the naked eye (or rather, to the naked ankle when it floods) that parts of Venice are flooding more and more often," stated Extinction Protocol.
New research by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California stated that not only is Venice is sinking, but it is sinking at a rate of up to two millimeters per year (0.08 inches). The city is being reclaimed by the waters that made it famous, who are also carrying romantic Venice out to sea. "According to measurements taken over 10 years, Venice is also tilting a bit, about a millimeter or two eastward per year."
~ Louisiana Bayou
Latest updates on the sinkhole/gas/oil/evacuation in October 2012.
~ Pacific Islands
According to Somersoft,
"the Pacific Islands are currently being drowned by rising sea water levels and the Australian public is apparently obliged to take responsibility for the displaced people from our neighboring islands."
Meanwhile, "the National Curriculum teaches vulnerable youth about melting Antarctic ice drifting north and flooding low-lying coastal regions, and on the next page discusses Tectonic Plate movement and massive landmasses colliding along fault lines forcing one plate beneath the other."
So what is exactly going on, sinking land masses or rising sea levels?