The puzzles of sea level change

Oceanographer Carl Wunsch will deliver the Riley Memorial Lecture on Monday.

Approximately 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans. But how much do we really know about this important resource?

Not as much as we should.

The late Gordon A. Riley, was a pioneer in studying the worlds’ oceans at Dalhousie University. Mr. Riley came to Dalhousie in 1965 and helped to shape the foundation of the world-class oceans research that Dal is known for today. Mr. Riley dedicated the majority of his career to researching and studying plankton. These microscopic organisms are a crucial part of the ecosystem and continue to be studied in depth by researchers both at Dalhousie and elsewhere around the world.

In addition laying the groundwork for the Department of Oceanography as we know it today, Mr. Riley’s legacy is the annual Riley Memorial Lecture Series. This is the 10th year for the lectures at Dalhousie that consist of world-class researchers being invited to speak on a variety of subjects.

This year, Carl Wunsch, a very prominent oceanographer who is the Cecil and Ida Green professor of Oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a professor at Harvard University, has been invited to speak.

Dr. Wunsch’s lecture, “The Puzzles of Sea Level Change,” will explore global changes in sea levels.

“Spatially, the ocean is very complex. The sea level doesn’t go up and down uniformly around the world. We need to think about and examine what’s going to happen in the future in terms of climate change and sea levels,” says Dr. Wunsch.

Dr. Wunsch was inspired to study the physical properties of the ocean when climate change first became an environmental issue. “Some 30 years ago, questions about climate change began to be raised. I quickly realized that the ocean was an important part of that, but at the time, we could say nothing about why it was important. That’s what got me interested in observing the fluidity of the ocean on a global scale,” says Dr. Wunsch.

The Riley Memorial Lecture Series will take place on Monday, November 8, 3 p.m. in the MacMechan Auditorium, Killam Library.