Quoting Mike Mitchell (m.mitch@exemail.com.au):
13 millimetres in the last 160 years, that's the total measurable sea rise.
The indicator to look at in that area isn't the amount over the prior 160 years, but rather more-recent observed rise: 3.3 mm over the sixteen years from 1993 to 2009, as measured by satellite altimetry.[1] That is a radical acceleration. That's not even paying attention to the various -other- bits handwriting on the wall such as worldwide retreat of almost all glaciers and ice caps including Greenland and Anarctica. (Even the ongoing melt of the Arctic Ocean ice cap matters, on account of singificant lowering of surface albedo, hence greater heat retention.)
There is an atoll near Vanautu or the Solomon Islands that barely breaks the surface and it has maintained its level above sea.
Yes, this probably reflects one of the factors not often adequately taken into account, though I did mention it in my earlier posting (and even Charles Darwin's study mentioned it, I think): Coral colonies are known to grow upwards during periods of sea-level rise, and they _may_ be able to keep pace in some areas (and maybe not in some others). As I said earlier, time will tell how that works out in particular cases. (The limiting factor that keeps atolls at most not too far above the ocean surface is wind erosion.) [1] http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/envs501/downloads/Nicholls%20%26%20Cazenave%2...