Sea levels surged beyond predictions in 2024, the warmest year ever recorded, as reported by NASA.
“With 2024 being the warmest year on record, the Earth’s oceans are expanding, reaching their highest levels in three decades,” stated Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, the head of physical oceanography programmes and the Integrated Earth System Observatory at NASA, on Thursday.
Josh Willis, who studies sea levels at NASA, noted that the increase in the world’s oceans last year was “greater than expected”, and highlighted that while yearly changes occur, the “pace of increase is accelerating.”
The NASA-led study, utilizing data from the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, revealed that the pace of sea level rise last year was 0.59cm (0.23 inches) per year – surpassing the initial expected rate of 0.43cm (0.17 inches) per year.
The global sea level increased more rapidly than anticipated in 2024, according to a NASA-led study. Read more: https://t.co/G85GAGlUKM pic.twitter.com/UYIFC6Sksou
— NASA (@NASA) March 13, 2025
Sea height monitoring via satellite began in 1993, and in the three decades leading up to 2023, the rate of sea level rise has more than doubled, with global average sea levels increasing by 10cm (3.93 inches), according to NASA.
Rising sea levels are among the impacts of climate change caused by human activities, and the increase in sea levels mirrors the rise in the Earth’s average surface temperature, which is driven by greenhouse gas emissions.
NASA highlighted that trends from recent years indicate that additional water from land, resulting from the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, is the primary driver, responsible for two-thirds of sea level rise.
However, in 2024, the jump in sea levels was mainly due to the thermal expansion of water – the process where ocean water expands as it warms – accounting for approximately two-thirds of the increase.
The UN has issued a warning about the dangers rising sea levels pose to large populations residing on islands or along coastlines, with India, Bangladesh, China, the Netherlands, and island nations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans identified as particularly vulnerable.
