InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society > Student Materials > Section 2: Introduction to Coastal Zone Hazards: Long and Short-term Processes of Change and Their Impacts on Society > Module 4: Understanding Sea Level Change > Sea Level Definitions
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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Initial Publication Date: December 7, 2016

Sea Level Definitions

As you can see from the previous page, defining sea level is a bit complicated, but to review...the term is best defined by scientists as:

the elevation of the surface of the ocean relative to the Earth's center of mass.

In a perfect, non-moving, homogeneous sphere, the elevation of the earth's liquid shell would be distributed equally about the center of gravity and sea-levels would be the same everywhere. However the earth is a heterogeneous, oblate spheroid that rotates on an axis and experiences gravitational influences from other planets and the sun. These factors, together with geographic variations of continents and submerged terrains, climate systems, water volume, tectonics, etc., the surface of the ocean, and hence sea level, changes on various time scales, ranging from minutes to millennia. Therefore it is a challenge to determine the exact sea-level of the Earth, but it is done.

As a result of these complications, when referring to sea level, geoscientists have to be a little bit more specific when they discuss "sea level." Hence there are a number of different definitions for "sea level" that need to be understood.

  • Global Sea Level - the average height of the Earth's oceans combined (relative to the earth's center). Influenced primarily by the factors that influence the volume of seawater, and size of ocean basins, etc. Often referred to as "Eustatic Sea Level"
  • Local (or regional) Sea Level- the height of seawater relative to a fixed point on land that is used as a continuous reference. Influenced by meteorological factors, tidal range, ocean currents, rates of subsidence/uplift
  • Mean Sea Level (MSL)- the average height of seawater relative to a fixed datum established by a statistical average of water heights over a period of time. This is the most functional definition for sea-level because it helps establish the elevation of all points on earth (topographic elevation, and bathymetric elevation). In the U.S. MSL is often reported relative to the 1983-2001 NTDE (National Tidal Datum Epoch). Tidal datums need to be updated every couple of decades because sea-level is not stable, and a new datum is likely to be announced.

Voluntary Reading

NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a Frequently Asked Questions page http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/faq.shtml that is useful for understanding some of the concepts raised here and in the video. A discussion on Tidal Datums is found here: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/datum_options.html

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »